


Steven Universe

by SunshineHeroSol



Series: Danger Watch Universe [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), a little Ben 10
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Crystal Gems (Steven Universe), Book 3, Crossover, Crushes, Danger Watch, Danger Watch Universe, Drama, Family, Found Family, Friendship, Kindergarten (Steven Universe), Puppy Love, Robots, mcu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 33,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25696141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineHeroSol/pseuds/SunshineHeroSol
Summary: Long ago, a war was fought over the Earth. A war between an empire who sought to drain it for resources, and the rebels who saw the world's beauty. The war was long, but in the end, the rebels won. Time passed, and their greatest leader fell in love with a human, passing on her life to their child. The first human-alien hybrid. Steven Universe. (Danger Watch: Phase 1, Book 3)
Series: Danger Watch Universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755103
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	1. Gem Hunt

**Author's Note:** _Hello, and welcome to a brand new story! This is an alternate take on the story of Steven Universe, set in the Danger Watch universe (which is essentially my take on an MCU-style narrative. More info in my bio, check it out!). I hope you're as excited as I am to take the plunge into this one, so I'll stop talking now. Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

_**Phase One, Book Three** _

_**Steven Universe** _

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Gem Hunt**

For the average being, a 10 ton boulder blocking the pathway through an icy cavern would be an insurmountable obstacle. It was stuck, with virtually no room to budge, against the fragile, craggy walls of the cave, threatening to never move at all, or if it did, to bring down the entire structure of the cave in the process. For the average being, it would be impossible to move the boulder, let alone do so without disrupting the ice-sculpted cavern and confirming their own demise.

Garnet was not the average being.

She stood well over 6 feet tall, with her defining features being enormous, muscular legs, a blocky afro, and a pair of reflective sunglasses. Her clothing, like that of her two companions, seemed to morph into the form of her body, making the difference between skin and textiles ambiguous to say the least. Finally, in the palm of each hand rested a deep maroon gemstone: a garnet. She strode forward, nothing but confidence, and laid a hand on the boulder, before turning just slightly over her shoulder to the two other gems who stood behind her.

"Stand back," is all she said.

The other two gems; a slender, pale, and graceful seeming individual accompanied by a smaller, lavender gem with a wild mess of white hair and the baggiest "clothing" of the bunch. Unlike the other two, the smallest gem actually wore a material sweater _over_ her form. Her slender companion found this strange. She, like Garnet, was adorned only in the shimmering, light-clothing of their homeworld. She was dressed in a practical yet elegant way, that made it seem as if somebody had spent a long and meticulous effort crafting her outfit. Both of them stepped back as Garnet, clearly the leader, gave the order.

"Garnet, you aren't going to _punch_ the rock, are you?" The slender gem said.

"What do _you_ think, Pearl?" Her shorter companion said with a snort.

Pearl touched the smooth, oval gem that was inlaid in her forehead; something she did when she was stressed, thinking, or about to kill something.

"I _think_ that if she punches that rock, the entire Ice Fortress will collapse on top of us," she said, a heft dose of snark seeping into her voice.

"And _I_ think you worry too much," the lavender gem said, turning her attention back to Garnet and clutching her fists excitedly. "Do it, Garnet!"

"Patience, Amethyst," Garnet said, her focus entirely on the stone before her. "Pearl is right. If I mess up, it will bring the whole Fortress down."

Amethyst's eyes widened, and Pearl's face took on a smug expression for a moment before the deep anxiety took root.

"Wait-"

"Which is why," Garnet continued, taking a step back and winding up her fist. There was a burst of red light, and suddenly her right fist was covered by a huge, metal gauntlet. A little smirk crept onto her lips. "I won't mess up."

"Garnet!"

"Hy-AH!"

Garnet swung her fist forward, with precision and power. Pearl flinched, and Amethyst watched with excitement. Just before the pointed spikes on the knuckles of her gauntlet collided with the large stone, she pulled back ever so slightly, allowing the blow to become glancing. There was barely even a sound upon impact. The other two blinked. Garnet waited.

Then, a perfect square was cut out of the stone, crumbling into gravel and spilling out onto the icy path on either side. It was tall enough for even Garnet to walk through, but left enough boulder in every direction so as not to let the tunnel collapse on itself. Garnet straightened up, adjusting her glasses and turning to the other gems.

"Let's go," she said, the gauntlet vanishing in another flash as she turned and walked through.

Amethyst laughed giddily and followed, and Pearl took up the rear, taking dainty little steps through the rubble, trying to avoid getting too much debris on her ballet shaped feet.

"Erm, well done, Garnet," she said, as they cleared the boulder and continued down the tunnel. Garnet said nothing, but gave a thumbs up, and continued walking. Pearl blushed, and the trio continued its trek through the ice tunnel. It took 5 minutes of walking through identical icy corridors for Amethyst to lose her patience.

"Ugh," she said, "where's the freaking mutey already?"

" _Amethyst_ ," Pearl said, aghast. The smaller gem put her hands behind her head nonchalantly.

"What?"

"Show some respect," Pearl scolded. "'Mutey', really! She might have been your comrade."

"Or a Homeworld dog," Amethyst said, refusing to look at the other gem.

Pearl sighed, and opened her mouth to speak before thinking better of it. Amethyst could be stubborn, and now was not the time to delve into debate. They had a job to do. She took a couple of quick steps ahead of Amethyst to gently put her hand on Garnet's arm.

"Um, Garnet?" She said.

"Mm?" The large gem asked, still looking straight ahead.

"Do you know where we're going?" Pearl asked. Garnet stopped walking, and turned to look down at her. There was a long pause, and Pearl felt a bit nervous by the time she spoke.

"We're going to find the gem monster," Garnet said matter-of-factly. Pearl blinked. Amethyst snorted.

"Yes, but… Do you know where it is?" She asked. Garnet straightened her sunglasses, and stared further ahead down the tunnel for a few seconds.

"I imagine its further down this tunnel," she said. With that, she continued to walk, Amethyst in tow, leaving a stressed out Pearl to take the rear once more, looking up and around, trying to parse out real movement from reflections.

"It's just that," Pearl said, unable to contain herself, "we've been down here for a considerable amount of Earth time. I worry that if we don't find the monster soon-"

"Relax, Pearl," Garnet said, a reassuring smile on her face as she glanced back. "We'll be back before he knows it."

Just then, there was a low, rumbling sound that echoed from further down the tunnel. It was some sort of hollow, cold, monstrous roar that sent chills down each of the gems. Amethyst and Pearl looked to Garnet, who grimaced, and then summoned her gauntlets. The other two responded in kind, drawing forth a spiked whip and a pearlescent spear from their gems respectively.

"Looks like you were right, again, G," Amethyst said in a low voice. The leader grimaced.

"Alright, Crystal Gems," she said, "let's do this."


	2. Enter Steven

**Author's Note:** _Hello again! Welcome back to another chapter. Now that we're starting the third book in the series, I must say I'm getting very pumped! Steven Universe is an integral part of Danger Watch, as well as a show I hold dear to my heart. If you're enjoying the story, be sure to give it a Kudos/Bookmark, as it means a lot! Now, enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 2 - Enter Steven**

After 4 or 5 glances in her direction, and more than a little bit of muttering to himself, Steven decided it was certain. That was definitely her. At first, he wasn't sure. There weren't a lot of girls near his age that hung around this part of the beach, even if it was close to the summer months; as evidenced by the beaming sun and warm sea breeze. He hadn't been able to make out her face at first, obscured as it was by glasses and a wide-brimmed sun hat, but now he was positive, even with her face buried in a book.

That was the girl from the town fair.

Thinking back on last years carnival, the entire thing was more or less a mixed bag for Steven. For starters, he had to participate in the parade with his dad, which he didn't mind. Greg was a kind man, if a little strange, but even that was what Steven loved about him. Since he owned the local car wash, Greg had the great idea to dress up Steven as a soap brush. Steven was less enthusiastic about that part, but had went along with it, since he thought it would make his dad happy.

During the time leading up to the actual parade, the fair had been a ton of fun. Amethyst had come as a chaperone at the behest of Garnet, putting on a long-sleeve shirt and a baseball cap, and telling everyone they ran into that she "just really liked body art." They had tried all of the rides that Pearl would never have let him ride, and then got nearly sick on eating junk food. Then, the coordinator of the carnival, a local man named Mr. Smiley, announced that it was time for all of the parade participants co come over to the float tent. So Steven left Amethyst napping on a picnic bench, and went to join up with Greg.

Now, Steven had no problem being in the parade. As a matter of fact, there was a little part of him that loved to perform. He couldn't explain it, but being in front of people, whether it was singing, dancing, or just plain walking down the road, just put a smile on Steven's face. And so, by the time the thing got started, he'd forgotten all about the uncomfortable onesie and the fake soap in his hair, and was too busy shaking his groove thing to the repetitive marching band music.

People cheered and applauded, and even though his float (an inexpensive thing being pulled behind Greg's van, which was an entire story of its own) was nothing to vibrant, Steven made up for it by his ability to woo the crowd, and soon the crowd was shouting "Universe! Universe!" One member of the crowd had stood out to Steven. In the front row. She wasn't chanting, but she was watching.

She had the faintest smile on her face.

Then, Steven was shaken back to the present by a familiar sound. Something like an electronic chime, followed by the sound of energy dispersing. He would know the sound anywhere. He'd only heard it every day of his life.

The warp pad.

Jumping to his feet excitedly, Steven turned around and starting running up the sandy hill, a difficult feat to achieve when wearing pink flip flops. The warp pad meant the gems, and Steven had some important questions to ask them.

The house where the gems watched over Steven was an altogether pleasant place to live. It had a comfortable deck, space inside, and the back half was completely ripped out and connected to an ancient, gem-tech structure that seemed to lead into the foreboding, stories tall temple that was carved into the cliffside behind it. To anybody else, walking this far down the beach and spotting the temple would be jaw-dropping. To Steven, it was just where he slept and went to the bathroom.

As he made it up the last of the steps that led to his deck, Steven cast one last glance down at the girl from the fair. With a sudden jolt, he realized she was looking back up at him, and he laughed nervously, whipping around and scurrying inside of the temple.

"Oh, hey, Steven," said a familiar voice.

Amethyst was standing in the kitchen, which was only a few feet away from the warp pad due to the open floor structure of the house. The warp pad itself was a marvel to behold: tons of different geometrical shapes, made from the same opaque crystal, fashioned together to create some kind of platform. Then, when a gem stands on it, and harmonizes their gemstone with its, they can use it to teleport to any other warp pad its connected to. This warp, for instance, was connected to every warp pad on planet Earth.

Well, almost every.

"Hey, Amethyst!" Steven said, running over and jumping up onto the stool opposite her at the breakfast bar. "How'd the mission go?"

Garnet strode over from the warp pad, now, one hand behind her back. Steven looked up at her, a little in awe, as he always did when looking at Garnet. She gave a little smile, she couldn't hold it back, and then showed Steven what she had behind her back.

It was a gemstone, with no body attached. However, there were several things that seemed… off about it. For one, it was emanating an odd, cold aura, as if it were full of dry ice. On top of that, there seemed to be some kind of weird, fleshy eye inside of the gem, as if it were encased in ice. The eye flitted back and forth. Steven shuddered.

"Steven," Garnet said, putting her other hand on the boy's shoulder so that he would look at her. "It's important that you understand."

Amethyst gave her a sidelong look, and Pearl, who had been about to open her door and enter the temple proper, had turned to listen in as well, an eyebrow quirked.

"Do you remember why we fight the gem monsters?" Garnet asked. Steven nodded. "Tell me."

"Because… they're hurt. Right?" He said uncomfortably, looking to Amethyst for a lifeline. She pursed her lips, unable to offer him anything. This was all Garnet's territory.

"That's right, Steven." Garnet said, her cooing voice contrasting with her hard-as-stone expression. "We have to bubble the monsters, because otherwise they may hurt themselves, or others."

This was a subject that had been hotly debated in their household. Pearl was strongly on the side of not telling Steven anything about important gem things until he was older, and Amethyst often leaned towards telling him whatever he wanted to know. As with most things, Garnet usually ended up being the one to make the call. It did seem a bit sudden of her to bring it up at this very moment; but that was Garnet.

Steven looked like he wanted to ask a question, but just before he opened his mouth, the ground began to tremble. Things fell off countertops, and Steven had to grab onto the bar to keep from falling over. The entire quake lasted only a few seconds, but it was so jarring that it felt long.

" _Another one?_ " Pearl shouted suddenly, running back into the room with the others. "We aren't even on the New Coast! I've never known Beach City to have this many earthquakes in a week."

Steven looked to Pearl, and then to Garnet, who gave him a thumbs up, and then placed her hand over the mutated gemstone. There was a warbling sound, and a perfectly round, red-pink bubble formed around the gem. Then, Garnet tapped the top, and it vanished. Steven gave her a thumbs up, too. He felt like they had a super cool secret now.

"That is strange…" Garnet said to Pearl.

"Do you think it has to do with the increase in mute-" Amethyst caught herself, "I mean… corrupted gems?"

"It seems likely," Garnet said.

There was a pause in the conversation, and Steven suddenly remembered the question that he was going to ask them.

"Oh, hey-" he started to say.

"Well, we just got back from the Ice Fortress. There was gem monster there, but no signs of anything else amiss in the dungeon itself," Pearl said, tapping her chin. Amethyst gave one pitiful look at Steven, but kept her focus on the conversation at hand.

"Still, we should keep looking," Garnet said. She was in her planning mode. Steven could tell by the way she crossed her arms, and wasn't particularly looking at anything. He sighed. He probably wouldn't be getting his question answered. "There are at least a half dozen other places that could have gone awry. We should do an inspection of all of them, and see if we can get to the bottom of this."

"What about the Sand Temple?" Amethyst suggested. "We haven't been out there in a hundred years, plus."

"Good idea, Amethyst," Pearl said. The smaller gem blushed a bit, and shrugged.

"Alright, Crystal Gems," Garnet said, all of a sudden full of zealous intent as she walked towards the warp pad, Amethyst and Pearl in tow. "Let's go."

"W-wait! You're leaving already?" Steven said. The three turned to face him. Amethyst made a pained face.

"Uh… Sorry, dude," she said. "Duty calls. We gotta make sure… bad stuff isn't happening."

Steven could tell she was censoring herself. The gems often did around him. He was used to it.

"Well… Can I come?" He asked, his eyes lighting up. The gems look awkwardly at each other.

"Erm, Steven," Pearl said, coming over and placing a gentle hand on the top of his head. "It's very dangerous in these dungeons; much too dangerous for humans, and you still haven't shown any signs of your gem powers developing… I would worry myself sick if you came along."

"Don't worry Steven," Garnet said, as Pearl and Amethyst gathered around her on the warp pad. "We'll be back before you know it, and then you can ask us that question."

"Wait, how did you-?"

"Goodbye, Steven!" Pearl called out. "I'll miss you!"

Then, a beam of light shot up from the warp pad's crystal surface, and in it, the gems disappeared.

Steven sighed, letting his head droop for a moment. Then, he sucked in a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and put on a game face.

"OK, Steven!" He said, "we can do this! We'll just… figure out how to make friends on our own."

He went over to the freezer, and reached inside, pulling out two things: a wrapped ice-cream sandwich labelled "Cookie Cat", as well as a second item which he stowed in his pocket. He unwrapped the ice-cream, and began to eat it gleefully. This was his favorite snack. If anything could pick him up out of a funk, it was a Cookie Cat. Once he had finished, he went over to the door of the house, and began to hype himself up.

"Hi, I'm Steven. _HII'mSteven._ Hi… I'm… Steven. Hi, I am Ste- _ven._ "


	3. Shifting Sand

**Author's Note:** Hey again! Welcome to another chapter! Since August is the month of Steven's birthday (and mine!) I am really happy that we're starting his part of the journey now! What do you think of the story so far? Let me know in the Comments, and as always, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 3 - Shifting Sand**

Some time later, Steven was still pacing in front of the door, talking to himself, trying to get in the zone.

Then, another tremor hit.

This one was even more intense than the last, and Steven actually fell over onto the ground, the wind knocked out of him by the suddenness of the impact. He lay there for a few moments, clutching his gem, which had caused him a minute amount of pain as he fell on top of it. The small quake quickly subsided, and Steven pulled himself back to his feet.

"What is with those?" He wondered aloud to himself. As Pearl had stated, they had been going on for a while now, but nothing had become of them. Steven shook his head. The gems would sort that out later. He had to stay focused.

After mustering his courage, Steven finally flung open the door, and stepped out onto the porch, timidly surveying the beach. The girl from before had moved from the edge of the water to a spot under the shade of the cliff-side. It was a shaping up to be quite a hot day, and Steven assumed she wanted to cool off a bit. She was still engrossed in her book, now sitting cross-legged, completely invested in the pages she was turning. Steven felt the tingling anticipation in the bottoms of his feet, and went down the steps at a half-jog.

Even as he crossed the sand, heart racing, towards her, the girl seemed to take no note of Steven. The young half-gem was honestly impressed by how focused she was. She was making a sort of scrunched-up face that belied her concentration, while a ghost of a smile painted the full picture across her face. Steven cleared his throat quietly, the sound drowned by the crashing of the waves, the calling of the seagulls.

This was it. He'd seen her come here to read on more than one occasion (Steven assumed she liked the peace and quiet) and now, finally, he was going to say something to her. Growing up in isolation with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl made the task of making new friends somewhat difficult; not everybody was comfortable being around giant, maroon ladies, after all, but the young Steven was determined. He took a breath in to say hello.

And once again, the ground shook.

"Woah!" Steven said, nearly stumbling and falling, but miraculously regaining his balance. The quake, along with Steven's shouting, was enough to shake the girl from her reading reverie, and she was suddenly looking at him behind round lenses that made her eyes look much larger. Steven turned bright red, as he planted his feet firmly on the sand once more. The quake stopped, and the girl continued to watch him, her expression impossible to read. "Um… Hi-"

_CraK._

Steven felt a tingle down his spine. He looked further up the cliff, and saw the source of the noise. A large boulder had been nearly dislodged, most likely due to the tremors, and was threatening to drop at any moment. Steven tracked its theoretical trajectory down, and gulped.

"Look out!" He shouted, suddenly dashing forward. The girl gave a sudden exclamation of surprise as Steven began barreling towards her.

_Ker-CRAk!_

As he ran, Steven saw the boulder break free. He saw the rubble begin tumbling down. He had to get to her. Faster. She was going to die!

* * *

With it's signature chime, the warp gave way to a beam of light, and out from it stepped the Crystal Gems.

"Oh, good heavens," Pearl said, "look at the state of this place!"

The desert warp was nestled well out the way, in a small cave miles from the nearest human city. The cave was covered in ancient gem scriptures and things from the old days. Diamond shaped carvings, depictions of the colonization, as well as the war between the rebels who defended Earth and the gems of Homeworld. This, the gems were used to. However, there were also some new things laying around the cave.

For starters, a blue hoodie lay traipsed without a care over a statuette of a gem with her arms outstretched, as if it were a coat rack. That alone set Pearl's blood to boil, but it was far from the last thing out of place. Close to the back wall of the warp cave was a large duffel bag, and out from it teemed various survival supplies: vacuum sealed rations, a few small tools, various clothes, and even a laptop. The laptop bore some kind of corporate logo: a stylized capital 'H'.

Amethyst inspected the duffel bag.

"These clothes look like they could fit me…" She said, lifting up a pair of dark blue jeans, as well as what appeared to be the top half of some kind of uniform. The latter was originally white, but was stained from oil, blood, or both from long ago, and had a few places where it was torn. Pinned to the lapel of the uniform was a nameplate that read: AGENT WADE. Amethyst chuckled. "This guy's first name is 'Agent'."

"Humans sleep in strange places when they have nowhere else to go," Garnet said, not having moved from the warp. The large gem crossed her arms. "Let's stay focused. It's still quite a trek to the Desert Temple."

Amethyst nodded, and Pearl gave one last disdainful look at the human debris before turning away entirely, nose upturned, to follow the other two. Garnet was right: it was going to be a bit of a hike through the desert before they arrived at the ancient gem location. The slender gem looked up at the sky, blazing with a sun she barely felt, a bright, brilliant blue. Hardly any clouds. If she squinted, Pearl was fairly certain she could see a rather round bird, very far in the distance, but other than that, the day was clear.

Nonetheless, something was eating at her. She wrung her hands, and after a few minutes of walking quietly, nothing but the sounds of their feet shifting through sand, she once again was the gem to break the silence.

"That's the second time he's asked to come with us," she said.

"Mm?" asked Amethyst, who was keeping pace with her now,

"Steven," Pearl clarified, "that's the second time that he's shown interest in wanting to come on a gem mission."

"So?"

"So," Pearl said, her voice taking on a coddling tone that thoroughly annoyed Amethyst, "what are we supposed to do about that? How long can we keep saying no? If he's asked twice, I'm sure he'll ask any number of times."

"As long as we have to," Garnet said from the front.

"But how long is that?" Pearl persisted. "I mean, Steven has been alive for 13 rotations of this planet! Why, Amethyst was spin-dashing within a week of popping out of the ground!"

"Heh, good times," Amethyst said.

"Steven is not like any other gem, or any other _thing,_ that has ever been," Garnet said calmly. They were hiking up the side of a steep sand dune, now, and Garnet was easily the least phased by the strenuous activity. "We don't know when, or even if, his gem powers will manifest. He's completely unique. So, all we can do is wait and see."

At that moment, the trio crested the top of the sand dune, and a hot, desert breeze blew from behind them, sending Amethyst's hair flying wildly around her. They were now looking down on the desert temple: a series of sandstone ruins and pillars, that seemed to be eternally sinking into an outrageously huge pool of quicksand. Garnet crossed her arms, surveying the dungeon.

"Well, this place is just about as inviting as ever," Pearl remarked.

"Does it look like it's sunk more since last time?" Amethyst asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Only slightly," Pearl said.

"C'mon team," Garnet said, "let's move."

With that, the three of them began to traverse the dangerous sand trap, keeping their eye out for anything amiss.

Unbeknownst to them, something was actually keeping an eye on them.

It had heard them coming: the loud noise of their voices easily piercing the empty, silent sands around them. With its acute hearing, it was awoken from its peaceful slumber, to its supreme annoyance. However, curiosity eventually won the waking creature over, and it padded away from its sun-warmed stone to see what all the fuss was about. Just as it was about to round the corner of a ruined pillar, it stopped.

Cresting a dune that would drop into the sand pit were three beings: they walked on two legs, and what was more, they bore gemstones that sparkled in the desert sun. That sparkle reflected dangerously in the eye of the spying creature. It flicked one ear, and receded a bit further behind the long shadow of the pillar. It had not seen such creatures in a long time.

Another sound caught the creature's attention: this one less organic and more mechanical, like a rhythmic beeping. The creature turned it's sensitive, pink ears to the sky, and listening intently, honing in on the source of the sound. At first, the creature had mistaken it as a high-flying, overweight bird. However, as it peered up with acute, yellow eyes, the pinkish beast could be sure of one thing: it was no bird of this world.

The unidentified flying object was round, and no larger in size than the spying beast's head, all told: a bit larger then a human basketball. It was a pastel green color, and was painted in a way that it didn't stick out against the sunlight or the sky. The beast knew passive camouflage when it saw it. Prowling to a spot behind a cluster of boulders, the beast observed as the flying object began to descend steadily, before coming to a hover just outside of the entrance to the Temple. The beast felt the urge to pounce, to crush this tiny thing beneath it's massive paws… But it resisted.

It was best to watch from the shadows for now.

* * *

Faster.

Before he knew it, Steven found himself colliding with the girl. He didn't even remember clearing the rest of the dune to get to her, but now, both kids had toppled over in the sand, Steven shielding her body with his own.

"Wah!" The girl shouted, pointing to something behind Steven. No doubt the enormous rock, coming to crush his spine, and potentially her beneath him.

The young half-gem closed his eyes, his heart racing. He just needed to make sure she didn't get hurt. As long as he took the impact, she would be OK. He clutched her tight, and crouched over her, squinting his eyes shut harder. She made a surprised sound. Then, there was a faint, ringing noise, that began to grow louder and louder. The boulder, Steven assumed, trying to keep himself rigid. He had to keep her safe. That was all he cared about.

_Kra-sh!_

There was the sound of shattering stone. Steven winced, waiting for the pain to come.

… and he waited…

But it never came.

Steven slowly opened his eyes, and to his surprise, found himself face to face with the glasses-wearing girl. She was veiled in a faint, pinkish hue, and she was looking up at him with stars in her eyes. Steven glanced from side to side. Everything around them was also twinged pink. He blinked once, and as his eyes readjusted to the image at hand, he realized the truth. The two of them were inside of a huge, pink, bubble.

Steven was suddenly very aware of the minimal space between the two of them, and hastily pulled away, getting to his feet. The girl sat up, and continued to stare at him, not saying a word. Steven rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"You just…" the girl started to say, pulling her knee up to her chest, still staring at him. "And then…"

"Yeah… Uh, I'm not really sure what that was," Steven said. The girl squinted at him, as if for a moment she recognized him, and Steven's heart jumped, but the expression quickly faded.

"Who are you?" The girl asked. The young half-gem suddenly went bright pink in the cheeks.

"Uh…" he said, "Hi… I'm Steven."

* * *

The entryway of the Sand Temple was a grandiose display of ancient gem architecture, with oversized pillars, decayed over time, and an ornate pattern on the ground that led deeper into the dungeon. As the gems followed this path, the heat harshly intensified, and even the hardy Garnet began to show some sluggishness. They walked and walked, egging slow and slower by the moment as the heat continued to swelter.

"Is anybody else," Amethyst panted, "like… dying?"

"Yes," Pearl said, a single drop of moisture dripping off the end of her pointed nose, much to her disgust. "I'm starting to… _Eugh_ … Sweat."

"Woah! Pearl, you never sweat," Amethyst said, suddenly intrigued. Pearl wasn't sure how to react.

"It's definitely getting hotter," Garnet said, touching the surface of a nearby pillar and inclining her head as if listening. After a few seconds, there was a faint sizzling sound, and she retracted her fingers, which were slightly singed. "I doubt any Earth life would have a chance down here as it is. So then how..."

"We aren't here to look after the _muskrats_ , Garnet, we need to make sure nothing is amiss," Pearl said. After a glance at Garnet's void expression, she suddenly went a little dark in the cheeks. "Er- But I suppose if we can make sure this place becomes less of a death trap in the process, that's probably wise too. Right, Garnet...? Garnet?"

There was no response. The larger gem was standing stock still, her head tilted downwards slightly, her expression masked by her visor-like glasses. There was no microscopic shifting, no movement of any kind; only pure focus. Then, after moments of sweltering silence, Garnet's eyebrows twitched, and there was a burst of movement from behind a pillar!

"Look out!" She said, whirling in the direction she had spotted the movement.

"I see it!" Amethyst called out. In a flash, the lavender-hued gem produced her whip, and in the same movement, she sent the business end flicking dangerously at the place where the moving shape had just been. There was an impact, but her whip met only sand and sandstone, kicking up both in an obscuring cloud. "Damn, it's fast!"

The other two gems summoned their weapons, and the three of them stood back to back, leaving no angle un-watched. They swiveled their heads, watching and waiting for anything, their pulses racing, sweat continuing to pour down their foreheads.

"Think we scared it off?" Amethyst said.

As if on cue, the sand on the outer edges of the hall began to swirl and shift, coming together from loose piles of particles to form corporeal shapes. They were at least 15 feet long, sturdy, and supple: tentacles. There was a minimum 8 of them, pulling themselves up out of cracks in the sandstone, to writhe menacingly in the air above the crystal gems. As they did, the air began to reach choking degrees of heat, but the gems grit their teeth and dug in their heels,

"Here we go again," Pearl muttered.

"What are we on now, 703?" Amethyst added.

"70 _5_ ," Pearl corrected.

"Crystal Gems. Let's do it!" Garnet said.

* * *

_**Meanwhile…** _

_**In Space…** _

In the far orbit of Earth, slowly making it's unwavering circle around the planet, was an alien ship. It was a huge vessel, larger than most watercraft used by the humans of the planet below, and fashioned to be in the shape of a pointing, humanoid hand. This sort of ship, designated as Hand Ship, was a deadly and well known sort of vessel: only the top officer's of the Gem Empire flew such ships, and thus they were often storied and feared. This ship was no exception.

On the deck of the ship sat it's captain, a hulking, orange gem with her pointed, golden gemstone centered squarely where her nose might have been. Her lavish, black cape was draped haphazardly over the back of her large, throne-like commander's chair, and she was leaning forward on her knees, finger's pressed together in front of her face, contemplating the brilliant blue sphere before her.

There was series of electronic noises from beside her. The captain turned to her compatriot, a green gem who was messing around with a holographic display being beamed out of an image processor on her shoulder, which seemed cybernetically enhanced. The sounds seemed to be coming from her, and more specifically, the flashing red dots on her screen.

"Well?" The captain grumbled impatiently, not one to be kept in the dark.

"The probe we sent to the Red Eye's crash site seems to have picked up something further out in the desert… Shall I tell it to investigate?"

The captain stewed on the question for only a brief moment.

"Send it in. Let's see what we're dealing with."


	4. Bubble Buddies

**Author's Note:** _Hey again! Welcome back to another exciting chapter of Steven Universe! Connie is probably one of my favorite characters in Steven Universe, but there are too many good ones! Who are your favorite characters, and do you like my portrayals of the cast? Let me know in the Comments, and as always, enjoy the chapter!_

_Oh, and if you haven't, think about giving the series a Bookmark too! That way, you won't miss any other installments in the Danger Watch Universe!_

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Bubble Buddies**

Amethyst was the first one to be hit, full force, by a sand tentacle. As she was busy keeping one at bay with her whip, another rose up from the sandstone behind her, and delivered a heavy blow to her side, sending her flying into a dune of sand. She gave out a pained _Oof!_ Then, she snarled in retaliation, pulling herself up out of the pit and doing what at first seemed like a forward somersault, before she started to gain momentum on the sandstone floor. In a blink, Amethyst's hair had become a dangerous, spiky armor around her, and she was rolling at blazing speeds towards the sand tentacle. There was a meaty smack on impact, and the tentacle exploded into sand particles. Amethyst skidded to a stop, coming out of her spin-dash form.

"Where's the gem?!" She called out.

Pearl suddenly came crashing down next to her, having been struck by another one of the sedimentary appendages. The slender gem struggled up to a sitting position, clutching her side and using her spear as leverage. She shook her head.

"I haven't been able to find it _anywhere!"_ She said.

Garnet, who was standing in the center of the room, was punching away tentacles left and right. She had summoned her gauntlets again, but these were much larger than the one's she had used to break the boulder in the Ice Fortress. These were big enough to pick up a teenage human in one hand, and Garnet was using them as wrecking balls to smash through the ends of the attacking limbs, forcing them to rear back and summon more sand to them to reform. However, just as the tentacles retreated, it seemed more would be summoned, and the constant exertion paired with the ever-rising temperature was now beginning to truly take its toll on the large gem. Her swings began to come out weaker, and more wild.

"It's got… To be… In one… of these!" Garnet said, smashing yet another tentacle in an infinite line of tentacles.

"Maybe the monster's under the floor," Amethyst said to Pearl, pointing to the bases of each tentacle, which seemed to meld with the sand that seeped through the cracks in the ground.

Pearl tapped her chin. However, there wasn't long to ponder, as just as they started to try and decode the puzzle, a wide, square pillar of sandstone came plummeting down from the ceiling of the temple, and seemed to crush Garnet like a boot would an ant.

* * *

"OK. From the top: you're mom was from space."

"Right."

"There was this huge war, and she basically won custody of the earth."

"Uh… yes," Steven said. He was pretty sure custody was a type of dessert, but wanted to seem like he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Then, like, a million years later… She gives up her mortal form and turns into your belly button?"

"Heh, I mean-"

"How does that even _work?"_

"I don't even know," Steven said, with a nervous little giggle. The girl, whose name was Connie, also giggled. The two of them were sitting about a foot away from each other, and have been talking for the better part of half an hour. Connie was very curious, and Steven found it hard to resist answering questions to make her happy.

"And then… the cosplaying lesbians that live here are actually your space-rock godmothers?"

Steven's cheeks turned pink.

"Um… Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl aren't my moms," he said. Neither 'cosplay' nor 'lesbian' was a word in his vocabulary either. Connie was very smart. "They just take care of me. I've still got my dad, though!"

"Oh, yeah… What's he like?" Connie asked.

"Dad's great! He-"

Before Steven could finish, there was another tremor, and the two of them looked at each other with wide, worried eyes. The bubble had yet to yield, despite Steven's efforts to dismiss it, and both of their attempts at trying to smash it with their fists and even a rock. However, as Steven glanced up at the quaking rock further up the cliff-side, threatening to drop down on them again, he began to worry about whether or not it would hold. Connie glanced at the young half-gem, whose eyes were locked on the danger above, oblivious her… or the bubble. Connie clamped a hand over her mouth to shield her gasp.

As Steven continued to doubt himself, the bubble's integrity was beginning to falter.

"Um… Steven…"

* * *

" _GARNET!"_ Pearl exclaimed in horror. From her and Amethyst's points of view, it seemed as though the sandstone pillar had come down from the ceiling with the intent to crush Garnet.

For a moment, the large, maroon gem was nowhere to be seen, presumably crushed. Amethyst gritted her teeth, and Pearl put both hands gently over her mouth. They both knew what fate awaited a gem who was crushed in such a way… It was the most dangerous blow a gem could take, with one exception. Well… two exceptions, as of the latest Gem War. Both Crystal Gems continued to oggle the scene, unable to look away from the gruesome sight.

Then, with a resounding _crash!_ A huge, metal gauntlet came crashing out of the side of the pillar, followed by Garnet, who unleashed a triumphant shout as she freed herself from the stony prison. Garnet looked a bit of a mess, her afro covered in dust and her sunglasses cracked. She skidded to a halt beside her allies, who weren't sure what to feel in this roller coaster of emotions. She grit her teeth, and there was nothing of the usual, level headed Garnet.

Garnet was pissed off.

"Amethyst," she said, dismissing one of her gauntlets and turning to the smaller gem with a hand outstretched. A butterfly flew around inside Amethyst's stomach, and Pearl made a small pouty face.

"Garnet!" Pearl interjected, "are you sure that's wise?"

"This gem monster has the entire temple at her command… She's powerful. Which means _we_ need to be powerful," Garnet said. "And… I'm done playing around with her. Amethyst, you in?"

"You know it! Let's take 'em down!" Amethyst said, reaching out for Garnet's hand.

As soon as they connected, it was as if the two of them were swept away by a melody only they could hear, a song only they knew how to dance to: and _how they danced._ Pearl couldn't help but watch, entranced, as the two of their movements seemed to become perfect for the other. They twisted, swayed, and turned in and out of each other's grasp in a passionate, sensuous movement that eventually made Pearl feel a bit voyeur just for spectating.

Then, partway through their dance, the two gems began to glow.

* * *

"Steven… Just… don't freak out, OK?"

"Heh… too late," Steven said, a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his cheek.

"You got this. Just think strong… thoughts?" Connie said, attempting to be encouraging. The bubble was now much more faded than it was before, and Connie thought she might be able to put a finger through it.

The unfortunate thing about the slowly fading bubble was that the first bit of falling rock had given way to much more, as if was prone to do, and Connie feared that they wouldn't be able to run fast enough to avoid the rocks above. Especially while it was still quaking. Connie blinked. The ground was _still_ shaking. This had easily been the longest quake of them all, so far.

_ker-CRAK_

The stone gave way. The earth stopped rumbling. Steven's heart stopped. For a split second, it was as if the world around him was frozen in place. The falling rock. The fading bubble. Connie, her face stuck in an expression of fear.

Guilt stabbed Steven in the gut as he looked upon the girl's face. If he failed here… She would die. He would be crushed. He would have let her down. Let his mom down. Let the gems down.

Tear's breached in the corners of Steven's eyes. He wanted to run and hide, to clutch his head and turn around and get away, but his feet wouldn't move. For a long, still moment, everything was too much for Steven. Waves of emotion crashed over him, and all he could do was hyperventilate.

How could he do it?

…

Because he knew he could.

He stopped. The tears stopped.

Somewhere deep inside of Steven, something in his gut affirmed it to him. Some part of him knew that he could do this. His mom? His inner self worth? Steven couldn't be sure, but as he reached for that confidence and strength, and combined it with his will to save Connie, Steven clenched his fist tightly, and with a resounding sound of sealing air, his bubble returned, more vibrant than ever.

Time started again.

_ka-BONG!_

This time, the stone was much larger than before. Instead of shattering into pebbles on impact, the falling cliff material collided heavily with the back side of Steven's bubble, catapulting the pink orb at an alarming rate down the steep sand dunes, and rolling towards the awaiting waves.

"Wahhh!" Connie cried out, as the two kids were rolled around inside like clothes in a washing machine. Steven tried to gain some semblance of control of how the ball rolled, but he had no such power, and he too was tossed around inside, until they hit the ocean.

 _SPLASH!_ The ball did not float, but instead began to roll down the steady incline of the beach drop off. It had wedged itself in the wet sand below the water, and with each crash of the waves, the current pulled the ball deeper and deeper into the depths, away from the light of the sun.

Connie and Steven took a moment to recover, and eventually sat up, rubbing their various aching points. They looked around at their now murky surroundings. They saw sand, rocks, shells, and even some fish, as well as underwater plants growing deeper in the water. For a moment, the two of them were awestruck by the fantastic visual, a 360 degree view of the ocean's depths was a rare one indeed. However, as soon as the ball lurched another few meters deeper, their hearts sunk.

"Steven?" Connie asked tentatively, as a bit more light was lost, and the beautiful ocean view became just a shade darker, and thus more sinister. The air, too, was beginning to grow somewhat colder, though the bubble shielded them from the worst of the temperature change.

"Yeah?" Steven asked.

"... Are we going to drown?"

"Uh, no! No, of course not," Steven said hastily, worried by the defeated look on Connie's face. When he spoke, trying to hang onto what little semblance of confidence he might have impressed upon her that he had. "We'll be fine. The bubble can withhold much worse than the pressure of the ocean."

"It can?"

Steven had no idea.

"Uh. yup!"

Another stomach-turning tug, and the ball was suddenly free falling at a sluggish pace, causing Steven and Connie to float up off of the bottom of the orb until, with a gentle impact, they crashed into more sand. Connie looked up. The light of the sun, in the reflection of her glasses, was very far away and dim now, and when she turned to look at Steven, she could barely make out the details of his face; which were worried.

"Steven…" she said again.

"Hey, don't worry, Connie!" Steven said, not even believing the words coming out of his own mouth. "We're gonna be alri-"

"Just stop. Steven."

Steven gulped. Connie folded her arms and turned away from him, looking out into the indiscernable, murky ocean depths beyond them. The young half-gem knew he had made a crucial mistake, and the guilt swelled up inside of him even further. There was a long, painful silence, before Connie spoke again.

"We're not going to be alright. Are we? The current is going to pull us deeper and deeper until we can't get back to the surface anymore. I'm gonna drown. At the bottom of the sea… Without ever getting into Harvard, or going to Swordcon, or reading the last Spirit Morph Saga book, or… Making any real friends…" She trailed off. Steven saw her reflection in the bubble. A small tear dripped down the side of her face.

Steven's heart ached at seeing somebody in a moment of such vulnerability. He looked at his toes for a moment, and then dug his hands into his pockets. He pursed his lips, and then pulled his hands free from his pockets, but kept them out of sight of Connie. The girl lifted her glasses from her face, and used her sleeve to wipe the tears from her eyes. Then, when she opened her eyes once more, she saw something odd reflected in the wall of the bubble.

A glowing, red ring.

Connie turned around. Steven was standing there, his palm flat, and resting in it was a small, glowing bracelet, like one might find at a carnival or arcade. Connie blinked once, putting her glasses back on just to make sure. She looked at the bracelet, and then at Steven, who was rubbing the back of his neck with the other hand.

"Well… We could be friends…" He said.

Connie's eyes filled up with stars.

"You dropped this at the carnival last year… I know it's kinda dumb, but Amethyst and I found it and… I kinda kept it in the freezer this whole time so it would still glow," Steven continued, finally mustering the courage to look at her. "So… I know I don't deserve it, for dragging you into all of this… But what do you think, Connie? Can we be friends?"

Connie looked back and forth from Steven's hand to his face once more, and then gently took the bracelet from him, her fingers brushing over his palm and tickling it gently. He bit back a smile. Connie slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, and twisted her arm around to look at it. Then, she gave Steven a little, thankful smile.

"I'd love to be your friend, Steven."

Steven's heart soared so high, he didn't even notice the dark shapes in the water before, with a _pop!_ the bubble vanished.


	5. Rising Tides

**Author's Note:** _Hey again! Welcome back to Steven Universe! This chapter is a long one, so grab a snack and strap in! As you can see, I'm changing up a few parts of Steven's story to help him blend in with the Danger Watch universe. I hope you like my ideas! As always, enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 5 - Rising Tides**

" _rrroooAARRRRR!_ "

Pearl stumbled backwards as the newly formed being before her let loose a mighty, daunting bellow of dominance. Standing where Garnet and Amethyst had just been was a colossal gem, easily 10 feet tall, and a dangerous shade of purple. She had a massive, thick, mane of hair that fell to the floor like a waterfall, and four muscular arms.

The two had fused.

They had become: Sugilite.

" _Oh, yeah, that's more like it,_ " Sugilite said, her booming voice carrying a multi-layered quality, as if three different people were all speaking in unison.

Sugilite studied her newfound surroundings. She noted the wavering sand tentacles, the somewhat low sandstone ceiling, and the broken pillar as well. She remembered that one. With a snort of hot air, she turned around to see Pearl, who was strewn out on the sand, looking nervous.

"... _Hey, P,"_ Sugilite said, in a coy, alto rumble. " _Long time no see._ "

"Um, yes, hello, Sugilite," Pearl said, blushing and looking away, her eyebrows knit, looking conflicted. "Perhaps we should focus on the task at hand."

Sugilite snorted, and then shrugged all four of her shoulders, turning around to face the tentacles, which were slowly amassing to the other side of the hall. That made the fused gem grin. All 5 of her eyes gained a menacing quality to them, and with one hand she reached into her chest gem to produce a massive pair of sunglasses, and then used another two hands to produce an equally over-sized ball and chain.

" _Aw, whats'-a-matter?_ " She said, donning the shades and swinging the wrecking ball low like a pendulum. " _Do I make ya nervous?_ "

It was unclear whether she was talking to Pearl or the tentacles, but she certainly gave no explanation, instead giving a battle cry and leaping right towards the sandy appendages, chain-ball in tow.

_Krack!_

Suddenly, another sandstone pillar came flying into view, this time coming out of the very walls of the great hall itself. It came on laterally with Sugilite as she flew through the air, and as it collided with her chest, Pearl winced, expecting the larger gem to get send flying. This was the same force that had nearly crushed Garnet moments ago.

Instead, Sugilite seemed to move a second before the _pillar_ did, and by the time they made contact, she had twisted in the air to firmly plant her feet. The pillar hit her, and crumbled into sand on impact. The fused gem put two fists on her hips, and crossed the other two across her chest, releasing a hearty laugh that brought sand down from the roof of the temple.

" _I'm startin' to wonder if we really need me for this,_ " the huge gem said, " _I mean. She's pathetic._ "

Pearl bit back her frustration. She imagined that was a part of Amethyst, amplified tenfold or more by the fusion. Combining the powers and personalities of gems results in a magnified expression of both. Fusion was more than merely mixing everything together in a pot: it was a relationship. It showed truths that, often, the members of the combined gem didn't even know about themselves.

Pearl sighed.

When it came to Sugilite… Well, she was an open book.

"If it's no problem, perhaps we should just finish this, then?" the slender gem suggested.

If Sugilite even looked at her, she couldn't tell.

" _Alright, sandy, time to pack it in,_ " She said. She dropped the chain-ball with a smug grin, and spread her hands wide as if to present them to the tentacles. " _I'm taking you down bare fisted."_

Then, she sprung into action. It took barely a stride for Sugilites huge legs to carry her to where the tentacles were gathering: a particularly tall sand dune. The source, perhaps. The fusion leapt directly into the writhing pile of sand, using her many limbs to grapple every tentacle she could. Then, with a mighty heave, she pulled them up from the ground, as if pulling a plant at the roots.

There was a crack of sandstone, and then a shower of loose sand as a large chunk of the floor was ripped up, and Sugilite revealed the form of the gem. On the underside of the stone was a sandstone pedestal, and resting in it was a red pillow, inlaid in which was a cracked, green gemstone, flat and shiny, like a piece of glass. The squirming, living sand that created the tentacles seemed to stem from there.

Pearl saw her moment, and wasted no time in darting across the semi-destroyed battle field, spear in hand. Once she saw her mark, she performed a dazzling display of acrobatics, leaping up onto a fractured part of the floor, taking aim, and then throwing her weapon like a javelin all in one beautiful movement. She ended on a pose, a bit of a self-satisfied smile on her face as she waited to hear the fruit of her labor.

_Tink-POOOOOF!_

The chamber was suddenly filled to bursting with white smoke. It took several seconds for the wind to disperse the cloud, and when it did, the tentacle mass had disappeared. Sugilite now held the cushion, which was impaled by Pearl's spear. She looked down at the puny gem in her hands.

" _How boring,_ " she said, tossing the entire thing down to Pearl, who frantically caught it before it could hit the sand. " _Listen… There better be something good next time I get called out. Or I'm gonna be pissed._ "

Then, there was another cloud of smoke, this time smaller, and Amethyst and Garnet came falling down from where Sugilite had just been. With grunts of pain, they hit the sandstone, and then groggily blinked back into consciousness.

"Aw, man," Amethyst said, groaning as she brought herself to a sitting position. "I forgot what being Sugilite feels like… It's a rush, but…"

"It's exhausting." Garnet said. She was lying completely flat on her back, and had barely moved.

They waited until Garnet and Amethyst felt a bit better, and then began to make their way out of the temple. The heat was beginning to die down, and they assumed it was because the gem was dormant. Garnet had placed the gemstone in a small, pink bubble, and then tapped its top to make it vanish. The standard procedure for handling corrupted gems. Doing so would send it back to their main temple, where it could remain safely.

"Well, guys, I think we did a pre-tty good job today," Amethyst said, putting her hands behind her head and smiling. Pearl snorted.

"Hold on… What is that?" Garnet said. The other two looked to her, and then looked straight ahead. Pearl put a hand over her mouth. Amethyst squinted.

It was some kind of robot. It was orb shaped and green, with several mechanical appendages as well as what appeared to be somewhere for a camera to sit. It was clearly gem technology… and also completely destroyed. Several of the limbs were just not there, ripped out at the base, and there was a massive, gaping hole in the center of the spherical chassis, All around the surface of the robot were deep, grooved claw marks. Garnet went forward and knelt by the destroyed bot.

"What is it?" Amethyst asked.

"It's a Homeworld spy drone…" Pearl said, tilting her head. "I think. It's very different from the ones I remember, but it has a lot of the same hallmarks. What I want to know is, what's it doing here? Who sent it? And-"

"How did it get like this?" Garnet asked.

* * *

After the initial shock of cold water, Steven began to feel around in the water for Connie. He tried to open his eyes, but the salt of the ocean stung them shut. After a moment of writhing in the water, trying to locate Connie, Steven's lungs started to scream. He needed air. He gave one last frantic whirl around, but, finding no trace of the other teen, decided it was possible she also needed air, and began to kick towards the surface, losing his pink flip flops in the process.

By the time Steven broke the surface, he was straining for oxygen. He sucked in air with a massive gasp, and shook sea water out of his face and hair, blinking back the wetness to see. The waves had become even choppier, and Steven realized they were farther out from the beach than he had initially thought. The ball had rolled them out past the drop off, and Steven now found himself floating in a small cluster of rock formations that jutted out of the water.

He was not alone.

Steven's heart jumped for joy as a larger wave crashed past, to reveal an equally waterlogged Connie, splashing at the surface and fighting to stay afloat. Steven felt a surge of relief, and tried to maneuver his way across the waters towards her.

"Connie!" He shouted, his voice nothing compared to the mighty, crushing noise of the greater ocean. "Connie, hang on! I'm-"

"Steven? Look out! There's a-"

_KA-PSHHHHH!_

The water between them suddenly broke, and a massive shape rose up from the sea. It was serpentine, and spiny, with an oddly gelatinous quality to it as well. It must have been 15 feet long, and its exterior was pale and translucent, allowing a glimpse at its glowing red insides. Like some terrible sea monster of a pirate's tale, the monster showed its back to Steven and Connie, sending them both flying back on the currents it created, before it submerged itself fully, and the waters returned to the state they had been in.

Connie and Steven looked at each other across the waves.

Then, they both started paddling as fast as they could towards the nearest rock structure.

It was a great deal of work, fighting the will of the ocean, and by the time to two kids had beached themselves upon the wet, algae covered rock, they were both panting, their limbs crying out in exhaustion. They both collapsed onto their backs beside each other, and stared up at the sky.

"What… Was… That?" Connie asked, slowly regaining her breath.

"Don't…" Steven said, "Know…"

After a few moments, Steven sat up, having managed to recover significantly faster than Connie, and peered out into the dark depths. He grimaced.

"Do you think... It's gonna come back?" Connie asked. Steven sighed.

"Probably," he said. Then, he turned around, and tried to give her a brave smile. "On the bright side, we're not in a bubble at the bottom of the ocean anymore."

They shared a nervous laugh, but the tension only increased. Both of them darted their eyes across the waves, trying to find some sign of where the monster lurking there would surface next. Sweat mixed with the remnants of salt water as Steven perspiration nervously. They waited, with hearts pounding, for the creature to reappear.

But it didn't.

"That's… weird," Connie said, a few minutes later. "What happened to it?"

"Did we imagine it?" Steven asked. Connie shook her head.

"No way… It moved the ocean!"

Connie pulled her hair back and into a pony tail, and as she did, Steven noticed that the glowing bracelet was a dull, pale color in the afternoon sun. That caused him to think back to the colors of the sea worm: a similar glowing essence had seemed to exist within its otherwise transparent, gelatinous body. Steven swallowed hard.

"Connie…" He whispered, standing stock still and trying to move his eyes around his limited field of vision. "Don't freak out… But I think it might be invisible."

Connie looked to Steven with wide eyes.

"It can do that?" She asked in a harsh half-whisper.

"I don't know," Steven said, "but its guts kinda looked like your glow bracelet, and… I mean, you can't see the glowy stuff very well in sunlight. So, what if it can camouflage in bright light somehow?"

"Steven, that... actually makes a lot of sense," Connie said. Then, she paled a bit. "Wait, then… It could be watching us. Right now."

The two kids did a slow, meticulous look-around of the rock cluster, as well as the ocean surrounding it.

It was Connie who spotted the monster, and only just. She wasn't even looking at it head on, but looking down at her and Steven's shadows. There, just barely, she could see what was almost like the reflection water casts on a cave wall. A tower of rippling mass, ending in… a mouth.

It was looming directly over there heads.

"Steven! Behind us!"

"Huh-?"

_huuuuh-REEE!_

The worm let loose a murderous roar as it threw its head back, and the movement made it much easier to spot. Now that they had seen the beast in full glory, they would have a hard time losing sight of it. It had a horrific, lamprey-esque mouth; perfectly circular, blade-like teeth positioned in a cyclone shape inside, and at the very back of its maw was a misshapen gemstone. It pulled itself out of the water, rearing up to its full height, and seemed to be poising to strike down like a serpent.

Steven didn't even think. He stepped forward, putting himself between Connie and the gem monster, his head down, dripping with sea water. Connie blinked, watching as Steven walked up to the highest point of their rocky island, and began to emulate a shining, pink light. It started from his stomach, and began to pulse out from him, creating a round disk of light, that pushed itself away from his body. There was a sound almost like a pop, and suddenly the light took solid form.

A translucent pink shield, in the fashion of a rose, was hovering in the air before Steven. The young boys eyes became stars, and his mouth popped wide open as he stared at the magnificent gem tech item. He nearly forgot about the monster looming before him, he was so excited. However, he knew this was no time to get distracted, and he straightened up his game face, slipping his arm into the back of the shield, which formed straps made from hard-light to fasten it to him. That gave Steven a sense of power and security, and as the roaring maw of the gem monster came hurting down towards him, he stood his ground.

"Steven!" Connie shouted. For a moment, it seemed to her that the worm had chomped down on Steven right where he stood. However, after a few seconds, the truth became clear.

The worm pulled back, its mouth stuck ajar, and standing at the entrance of the toothy cavern was Steven, who had increased the size of his shield just enough to keep the jaws of the worm from clamping shut on him. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead, as he breathed a sigh of relief for having not been eaten. He looked back to Connie.

"Uh, I'm OK!" He shouted back.

Then, he gave a shout of surprise as worm began to shake its head viciously in an effort to dislodge the cumbersome teen. Steven squeezed his eyes shut, and hoped that his shield would hold, pushing his will into it. To his genuine shock, the monster was unable to get the shield unstuck from its teeth, leaving Steven in limbo between falling to the churning, rocky ocean, or into the deadly pit of teeth. He had to come up with a plan.

The worm didn't plan on giving him any time. With a screech that was amplified for Steven, being right at the entrance of the mouth, the monster began to hurtle across the sea. Steven was suddenly hit with a rush of briny spray as the beast brought him along for the right. Spitting out salt water, Steven squinted his stinging eyes to look ahead, hoping desperately that the worm wouldn't drag him out to open sea and starve him. The young half-gem began to deeply question his decision.

However, the worm was not aiming for open sea. Instead, their destination was somewhere equally dangerous: the nearest cluster of spiky rocks, jutting out above the waves. Steven's heart sank as he saw the direction they were going. The spikes were approaching fast, and if he didn't do something _now,_ he was gonna get skewered between the crags and the teeth. He thought as fast as he could, and as the moment approached, he could think of only one option.

Connie watched as the worm crashed headfirst into the deadly cluster of rocks. There was a screech of agony, causing Connie to wince and turn away. She clutched her bracelet, and hoped as hard as she could that Steven was ok. Eventually, she worked up the courage to look back at the worm. It wasn't moving. She blinked.

_Poooooommffff!_

There was a massive explosion of white smoke that ran across the water, and Connie threw up an arm to shield herself, having to firmly plant her feet to stop from getting tossed back by the force of the expulsion. When the smoke had settled, only one think remained on the spikey rocks.

A small, pink bubble.

Without having to accommodate space for both he _and_ Connie, Steven was able to form a much smaller bubble very quickly, with just enough room for Steven to curl up inside of it, rolling back into the gaping throat of the gem monster, and forcing it to take the brunt of its own ram. It then sustained enough damage for its form to dissipate.

Connie jumped into the water without hesitation,

"Steven!" She cried out, paddling with all her might and actually thanking her mother (for once) for giving her those youth lifeguard lessons. She cleared the ocean with surprising speed for a child of her caliber, and carefully navigated the large spikes to get to where Steven was, in the fetal position inside of his bubble. Connie pressed her hands against the bubble. "Steven?"

With a faint _pop!_ The bubble vanished, leaving Steven lying on the rock in front of Connie. He uncurled, and tried moving into a sitting position, but lurched forward. Connie quickly caught him and propped him up. He limply nudged his hand against hers, and mumbled something unintelligible. Connie furrowed her brows.

"What?" she asked, but Steven was too far gone. He nodded off, unconscious.

Connie sighed, and noticed the hand he had tried to give her was clutched in a tight fist. There were a few fresh cuts bleeding on his wrist, hand, and forearm. Connie frowned, and gently pried open Steven's hand. What she found there only confounded her further.

It was an oddly shaped gemstone.

* * *

_**Meanwhile…** _

_**In Space…** _

"It _WHAT?_ "

"I think some of the local fauna mistook my drone for… how do you say it? Diet."

On the deck of the Hand Ship, the captain was fuming, looking down at the blue marble and pacing out her frustration. Behind her, glued to a holo-screen as usual, was her green compatriot. The captain turned to her, now, in anger, and stormed up to her, causing the more diminutive, cyborg gem to cower, her screen vanishing.

"Are you telling me that some prehistoric cave-dwelling carnivore was able to best your machine?" The captain asked.

"Um… I mean, technically… yes."

The green gem stumbled back as the captain stiff-armed her and shoved past, the sliding doors of the deck opening to grant her passage. Before she left, she turned around and cast her resentful, yellow eyes on her subordinate.

"Well then… I guess you'd better get down there your damn self, Technician Peridot."


	6. Ask Greg

**Author's Note:** _Hey again! Welcome back! If you've made it this far into the story, I would really appreciate it if you left a Comment and told me what you think of the story so far! What are your predictions for the future of Steven, and Danger Watch as a whole? What is something you'd like to see? Your feedback helps me keep producing content, so thank you! And, as always, enjoy the chapter!_

_Also, be sure to follow the Danger Watch Universe to keep up with the entire series!_

* * *

**Chapter 6 - Ask Greg**

When Steven began to come to, the mere act of opening eyes sent dull, throbbing pain through his skull. He decided not to do that.

There were several voices caught up in a heated conversation, and at first, Steven had a hard time making out what they were saying, let alone who they belonged to. After a long period of fading in and out of focus, he eventually began to deduce the words that were being said.

"-you both soaking wet?! What on Earth happened?"

"Uh, I know it seems weird, but- I promise, I'm not here to do anything illegal!"

"Illegal?" A third voice said with a chuckle.

Oh, Steven recognized that last voice. Amethyst.

"Steven saved me from these falling rocks, but we got stuck in a bubble, and then we sank to the bottom of the ocean, and there was this _huge_ worm, and Steven, like, magically summoned this shield, and-"

"He _what?!_ "

OK, that was definitely Pearl.

"He was incredible!" This voice was… Connie. It took Steven a second to remember her name. "But I think he overdid it or something? Because once he blew up the monster, he passed out… My mom put me through junior lifeguard training, so I was able to get him back to shore and do first aid, but, um..."

"But what?" Asked Amethyst. There was a wide moment before Connie spoke again, and when she did, it was in a more quiet, timid voice.

"I… didn't know what to do with the gem so… I kinda… putitinthefreezer?" she said.

"The freezer?" The final voice, Garnet's, said.

"I didn't want it to pop back out!" Connie said defensively. "I thought it might be like a reptile, where it goes dormant when it gets cold."

Garnet snorted.

"Gems are _not_ like reptiles," she said, with an air of haughtiness.

There was the sound of the freezer door opening, and judging by the chill on his bare toes, Steven figured that he was lying on the couch in the main room of the house. It still pained him too much to attempt to open his eyes, and he was far too exhausted to try and hold a conversation with the likes of Connie or Pearl. So, for the moment, Steven remained silent, and listened, as the telltale sound of a gem being bubbled and then tapped rang out. Very quietly, he heard Connie mutter: ' _wow'_ under her breath.

Then, there was a faint, vibrating noise, along with the quiet chiming sound of a phone ringing.

"Oh… Uh, hey, this is my mom. She probably wants me to come home. I… have to go. Can you tell Steven thank you, for me? And to give me a call when he can? Here, I'll write my number down… Mom doesn't normally like me giving my cell out, but, I think these are specific circumstances."

"We'll make sure he gets the message," Amethyst said.

"Erm, thank you for rescuing Steven, young Connie," Pearl said, forcing herself to use some form of manners. "We are quite thankful."

The door of the house creaked open.

"Of course," Connie said, "he's my friend."

Then, the door creaked shut. Silence hung in the air, and after some time, Steven began to wonder why the gems were being so quiet. His head stung a bit less, so perhaps if he peeked one eye open…

"I knew it," Garnet said, "you are a little faker, Steven Universe."

Caught! Steven quickly tried to shut his eye, but it was too late. All three gems moved in! Pearl cradled his head in her lap, Amethyst propped herself up on the back of the sofa like a cat, and Garnet stood, with her arms crossed, on the other side of the coffee table. Steven opened his eyes with a sigh, and found to his relief that the pain in his head had receded rather quickly.

"So, I guess we don't have to tell you what Connie said, do we?" Amethyst said, in a bit of a taunting tone. Steven sat up and shook his head no.

"She called me her friend," he said, touching his face and smiling gently. "I… made a friend!"

Garnet couldn't hide her smile, though she attempted to with a deft hand. Amethyst bounced down onto the cushion beside Steven, and ruffled his curls with one lavender hand.

"Good job, man," Amethyst said, looking over his face. "You took out a monster! And you don't even look scratched!"

Steven rubbed the back of his neck.

"I was pretty tired for a while, but, aside from the teeth marks in my arm, I'm honestly fine," he said. Pearl continued to give him a bit of a strange look, pursing her lip, her eyes darting around inside of his own. "You OK, Pearl?"

"Hm? Oh, why, of course, Steven!" Pearl lied, giving him a well-meaning smile, and adjusting her completely straight hair. "Garnet? Can I have a word with you for a moment?"

The two tall gems stepped into the kitchen. Steven sighed. Amethyst clicked her tongue and gave him a sympathetic look.

"Aw, hey, c'mon Steven," she said. "Don't worry about Pearl. She's gonna be anxious if you tie your shoes wrong, and she's gonna be anxious when you save your friend from a giant monster. What are you gonna do? We love her."

Steven giggled.

"Yeah, we do," he said, glancing over to the pair whispering in the kitchen.

"Do you know what this means?" Pearl said, whispering excitedly.

"Pearl, I don't think Steven wants you to teach him swordfighting," Garnet said, "you remember how that went last time."

"No, not that," Pearl said, blushing a bit. "I mean, this is an excellent opportunity for us to start training Steven!"

Garnet was stone faced.

"No it's not," she said. Pearl blustered.

"Uh, wha- Of course it is! His powers are developing! He created a bubble, he summoned _Rose's_ Shield," her voice trembled when she said _Rose._ "He took down a gem monster single-handedly!"

"And almost died," Garnet countered.

"You heard Amethyst, there's barely a scratch on him," Pearl said. Then, she sighed, and shook her head, touching her gem. "No… No, you're right."

"I know you're eager to train him, Pearl."

"I'm just worried! What will happen if you gets into another fight, when we aren't here, and he doesn't know how to wield his powers? What use are they if he's just a nuclear reactor of gem ener-"

" _Pearl,_ " Garnet murmured evenly, but with enough sternness to stop her in her tracks.

In the other room, Steven was peeking over the arm of the sofa, watching them with big, brown eyes, and listening intently. Amethyst, over his shoulder, was looking at them with an expression that read: _What the hell, you guys!_ Garnet waved awkwardly and Pearl waggled her fingers uncomfortably, and the pair of them turned back to each other.

"I understand your concern," Garnet said. "And… I agree."

"But, Garnet, you just don't-" Pearl stopped, and met Garnet's reflective gaze with her own. "Wait, what?"

"I agree. I think it's time for us to teach Steven what it means to be a Crystal Gem."

"Wha- but, you _just_ said that this _wasn't_ an excellent opportunity to train him!"

"It's not. It's an unfortunate circumstance, but one we must overcome," Garnet said. She pushed up her glasses and the edge of a smile played at the dimple in her cheek. "I have faith in Steven. After all, what Crystal Gem wasn't overcome a little adversity? We forged ourselves on the fields of battle."

Pearl squealed excitedly. She loved it when Garnet got all leader-y. The large gem strode into the living room with confidence, causing Steven to perk up, stars in his eyes. She brought Pearl with her in her wake. Amethyst made a face.

"Steven," Garnet said. "You have your mother's gem. Which means, in time, you could possess many, if not all, of her powers."

Steven's mouth formed a small 'O'. He knew this, of course, but Steven could tell when a big Garnet speech was coming.

"We don't know to what extent that will be. We never will," Garnet adjusted her glasses. "However, now that they've finally shown themselves, I believe it's time that we teach you how to use you powers. Properly."

Steven's jaw dropped. He looked to Pearl, who gave a bit of coy smile and turned away, and then to Amethyst, who was trying her best to be encouraging.

"You mean it? I'm gonna be a Crystal Gem? You're gonna take me on missions?" Steven said excitedly. Garnet nodded, Steven pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! Oh, man, this is so cool! I can't wait! Can you teach me how to summon the bubble on command? Or, like, when I throw the shield, can I make it come back to me? Or can I summon other kinds of weapons? What about-"

"Hold on, Steven," Garnet said, holding up a hand, slightly overwhelmed by all of the energy he was putting out. "Patience. We'll start with the basics, and soon you'll be a true master of your powers."

The leader of the Crystal Gems walked across the room to stand on the warp pad.

"Sorry that we can't give you a bit more of a formal welcome to the team, little guy," she said, "there's something big going on. Amethyst, Pearl. I'm going to the Kindergarten. I have a… feeling that something might be there. Once Steven gets back, take him with you to the Sky Spire and make sure that everything is fine with the Galaxy Warp."

"Sky Spire? _Galaxy Warp?_ " Steven echoed. Then, he caught the first part of her sentence. "Wait, once I get back from where?"

Amethyst grinned.

"Well, you have all of our permission…" She said.

"But there's one more person you still have to ask," Garnet said.

* * *

As Steven made it to the far side of Beach City, the sun was closer to setting than it was from the center of the sky, but it wasn't getting dark quite yet. The air smelled like grilling meat, and there was the faint sound of distorted guitar being carried on the same wind. These two things, combined with the tropical smell of car soap brought a huge smile to Steven's face, and he quickened his step the rest of the way to the car wash.

Greg Universe might have been a handsome man, once, but now, it seemed his looks were the last thing on his mind. He was dressed like some kind of beach bum: ripped off shorts, a tank top, and flip flops. He sported heavily sun-tanned skin, a shadowy patch of stubble covering his face, and a long, luxurious mane of hair that unfortunately didn't quite cover the shining crown of his head. He was nestled comfortably in a fold-able chair, with a blazing grill full of hot-dogs in front of him and an electric guitar slung across his lap. The guitar was plugged into an amplifier that was in turn plugged into a generator hanging out of the back of his ostentatious van.

Greg's van was a true sight to behold. It had sliding doors in the back, tires from a few decades ago, and the sides were painted with a bright, psychedelic art pattern, with the words "Mr. Universe" dominating the piece in funky letters. The back of the van was cluttered with junk, from pieces of the previous years carnival float to musical memorabilia. The van, and also the merchandise, were relics from Greg's previous career. Before running Beach City's car wash, he had once been a mildly popular rock artist. Those days were long past him, though, and most of his time was now dedicated to running the wash and parenting his dear son.

"Dad!" Steven called out.

"Oh, hey, Schtu-ball!" Greg called out, waving him over. "Hey, take my seat, I'll grab another chair from the van."

"Ok." Steven said.

"Here, you want the hot dog too?" Greg said, jokingly offering the remains of a half-eaten sausage to Steven.

"Nah, I'll get my own," Steven said with a laugh.

"Good, cuz there was no way I was giving you mine," Greg said, stuffing the last of the morsel into his mouth before rummaging around for a moment and producing another chair. He proceeded to unfold it, and settled himself down beside his son, who was dishing up a hot dog. With a satisfied sigh, Greg played a mellow chord on his guitar, closing his eyes and letting it echo out into the afternoon air before smiling with content, and turning to Steven. "So? What brings you to visit the old man?"

Steven, who had just taken a huge bite out of his hot dog and was now chewing, made a face, and held up a finger. Greg gave a deep chuckle.

"Hey, say no more," he said. "Can't ask a guy to answer questions when there's hot dogs to be eaten. You forget breakfast or somethin' buddy?"

"No," Steven said after swallowing. "I uh… Went swimming."

It was an express request of the gems that Steven keep most of the sensitive information about their activity a secret from his father. Greg knew about the gems, the war, and all those sorts of things, but he had a tendency to get a little wired when thinking about magical space stuff. Thus, Steven always tried his best not to mention the dangerous and wacky antics that often occurred at the temple.

"Dad, uh, I have a question," Steven said, looking down at his half-eaten hot dog.

"Shoot," Greg said.

Steven chewed his lip.

"If I… theoretically… Started to develop mom's powers would it be OK if I went with Pearl and Amethyst on a training mission?" The words started to tumble out of Steven's mouth, and he has spit up the entire sentence before he even noticed. Greg raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, boy. Gem stuff," he said. With a groan, he leaned forward, placing his guitar gently against the van. Then, he turned to Steven. There was a distant fondness there, one that Steven often saw from his father. "You're starting to get Rose's powers, huh?"

'Rose' was a bit of a taboo word around the temple. Whenever anybody mentioned their late ally, Pearl tended to clam up and Amethyst would always look at Steven like he was a hurt puppy. The only time he heard the name uttered in full, fond confidence was from the ever aloof Garnet, and Greg.

Steven nodded in response to his question.

"What, can you like… Fly, now?" Greg asked. Steven shook his head.

"No, but, I can summon this really cool shield!"

"Her shield? Really?"

"I did it today while fighting a mon- uh, monster wave! I surfed on it! You shoulda seen it," Steven lied awkwardly. Greg grinned.

"Well, can you do it right now?"

"What?"

"Summon the shield!"

"Oh," Steven said, looking down at his belly button. "Um… I could try."

"C'mon, don't get stage fright just because your old man is watching," Greg said encouragingly. "Show me watcha got."

Steven nodded, bolstered by the confidence Greg had in him. He held his hand out, and closed his eyes, focusing on the gem that nestled in his stomach. He focused, trying to pull on the energy that he knew lay dormant there, waiting to be accessed to produce incredible power. He reached, and he reached… And nothing happened. He found himself straining, reaching out in the air, grasping for nothing. Greg gave him a bit of a concerned look.

"Well, don't hurt yourself. It's alright if you can't do it right now," he said. Steven dropped his arm with a sigh.

"I did it earlier…" he said.

"I believe you Schtu-ball! Heck, I never played two good shows in a row," Greg said, reaching forward to pat his son on the shoulder. "But, like I always say: if every pork chop were perfect…"

"We wouldn't have hot dogs," Steven said, a bit of a reluctant smile creeping its way onto his face.

"Well, maybe you _do_ need some training," Greg said. "Nothing can help you get the hang of something hard like a good teacher, and Pearl's great! She taught me how to fix up the van when it gets that sticky sound in the brakes! Although… That was before she and I…"

Greg trailed off. Pearl and Greg didn't see much of each other these days, and that was entirely due to Pearl. She wanted nothing to do with him. Steven was too young and naive to know why, but there was an air of animosity that she put off whenever Greg was brought up that was palpable, even to his young sensibility. Greg shook off his stupor.

"Anyway, kid, you've got my blessing," he said. He looked to his son. "Just… don't do anything too crazy, alright? Stick to the gems like glue, you hear me? I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. You're my boy!"

"I know, Dad," Steven said, his cheeks a bit pink. "Thanks."

"Alright, well, at least finish your hot dog before you go. You'll need the energy and… it's gettin' cold."


	7. Pieced Together

**Author's Note:** _Hey again! Welcome back to another (late night) chapter of Steven Universe! Chapter's might start coming out slower as we reach the second half of the year, but I promise I'm working hard to bring you the exciting world of Danger Watch! We're over halfway through now, and Steven's story is picking up steam, so be sure to leave a Kudos/Bookmark if you want to keep up with the uploads! Thank you so much for reading, and enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 7 - Pieced Together**

With its signature chime, the warp pad dropped Steven, Pearl, and Amethyst in their desired location. There was a crashing of waves, but far more distant than that of beach city. Steven's eyes widened as he realized they were standing on the edge of a rocky cliff, which was so high above the sea that he couldn't even see it beneath the clouds. Gulls were flying below them. Then, there was a shifting of wind, and the clouds began to blow past them, revealing their destination.

Floating in the air before them was a massive structure, seemingly suspended by nothing but a lack of gravity. It was something like a tower, with a spiraling, monumental design, and large crystal structures growing jutting out in seemingly random locations, and various balconies coiling around the exterior. Somewhere inside of the spire there had to be a pool or fountain of some kind, as Steven could see a small waterfall pouring out from its side; and it was tall. Very tall. Steven could hardly see the top.

"Ah, and here we are! The Sky Spire," Pearl started talking as soon as the sound of the warp pad had died down. She gave a nostalgic sigh. "You should have seen it in its hay day, Steven. It was truly a marvelous sight, and there was no better place for gem social gatherings… Uh, that is…"

"Before we found out that the people hosting the parties were also trying to turn the planet into a-"

"Well, anyway," Pearl said, cutting Amethyst off, "that's the end of that little gem history lesson. Steven? How are you feeling? Ready to go up?"

Steven was standing slightly behind the other two gems. Unlike Amethyst and Pearl, who were entirely unequipped save for their gemstones and odd clothing, the young half-gem was decked out with various pieces of adventuring gear. Chief among them was his backpack, an ostentatious affair shaped like a cartoon cheeseburger. Inside of it he had crammed just about anything he thought might he useful from inside of the temple; including a flashlight, spare clothes, and a couple of Cookie Cats, in case he got hungry. He had worried about them melting, but had decided it was a problem for the future.

Now, as his two mentors turned to look back at him, Steven felt a flutter of excitement in his stomach. He was on a real gem mission, his _first_ gem mission. With a quick dance from foot to foot (which made Pearl worry the boy had not heeded her warning to pee _before_ they left), he eagerly bounced forward to stand side by side with Amethyst and Pearl. His first step off of the warp pad. His first step as a Crystal Gem. He pointed heroically towards the top of the tower, which came off as more like adorable due to his diminutive stature.

"I'm ready! Let's do it, let's conquer the dungeon, slay the gem monster, and save Hyrule!"

"What?" Amethyst asked with a laugh.

"I mean, Beach City!" Steven corrected himself, "and all of Earth!"

Amethyst snorted, and Pearl put a hand to her mouth daintily, shrouding a slight chuckle at his boyishness. For a second, the latter gem was hit with a rush of nostalgia, looking upon Steven's stance, his enthusiasm, his eyes… She was reminded, suddenly, of ghosts of the past, and the soft gesture of covering her mouth suddenly became vice-like, the slender gem clamping her hand over her face so hard it began to lightly discolor. After a moment of breathing, though, Pearl seemed to center herself. Amethyst looked to her, bit her lip, and then turned to Steven, aiming to take his attention away from her momentary onset.

"Alright, pal," she said, "how do you think we're gonna get over there?"

Steven tapped his chin.

"Well… Either we build a bridge, or fly over! But… gem's can't fly, can they?" He said.

"Not all of them," Pearl said, now having regained her composure. "Certainly not me."

Amethyst puffed out her chest proudly, and jerked her thumb at her gem.

"Well, luckily, _I_ totally can fly," she said.

"Woah, Amethyst, really?" Steven asked, intrigued.

"Oh, here we go," Pearl added.

"Of course I can! Alright then. Stand back, little man," Amethyst said, rubbing her hands together.

Pearl put gentle, guiding hands on Steven's shoulders as the two took a couple steps backwards, giving Amethyst room. The stocky gem squeezed her fists, closed her eyes, and began to focus her energy. A pale, lavender glow began to emanate from her, starting at the gem, and then spreading to the rest of her body, From there, her form began to grow amorphous, shifting its size, density, and even its shape to radical degrees.

One moment, Amethyst was there in her humanoid form, and the next she had assumed the form of something else entirely. Where feet once were there were now wide, webbed talons. Arms had stretched out and grown sleek, purple feathered wings. Her body had grown and lengthened, along with her face, which curved and hardened into a beak. She had become a massive, lavender, seagull, large enough for Steven and Pearl to ride.

"How do ya like that, Steven?" Amethyst said smugly through her new beak, doing a little strut back and forth before him. Steven laughed in surprise.

"Amethyst, that's so cool!" He exclaimed, bounding over to get a closer look at her gleaming feathers and webbed toes. Pearl tilted her nose up just a bit.

"Yes, well done… Now, let's get moving. There's much to learn, Steven! This is your first time on a mission, after all," she said, striding graciously over to pull herself up and onto Amethyst's back. She then helped Steven climb on in front of her, so that he was nestled safely between the two gems. "Make sure you hold on tight. Amethyst has a habit of flying recklesslyyyyyyyyyy!"

The last word was dragged out into a long scream as the purple seagull took a swan dive off the side of the cliff, bringing her and her two passengers into a freefall. Amethyst met Pearl's cry of terror with her own shouts of joy, and Steven joined in with a mixture of both, unsure what to fee. Amethyst, ever the jokester, let them plummet just a little bit further before spreading her massive wings and catching the air, pulling them into a gentle, swooping updraft that brought them gliding cleanly to one of the many outcropped entrances to the Sky Spire. With a _plit-plat,_ her enormous webbed feet found purchase, and she dipped her head to allow her passengers to climb off before, with a bright glow, she returned to her usual form.

"Thank you for riding Air Amethyst, be sure to pick up your guts in the loading area. We hope you had a great trip!" Amethyst said in a mockingly sweet tone, like those used by tour guides and flight attendants, before she snorted a chuckle to herself. Meanwhile, a flustered looking Pearl was adjusting her hair and straightening herself out.

"Honestly, Amethyst, show some restraint," she said.

"Oh, whatever, P," the shorter gem said, "Haven't you been in like, dogfights before? I figured a little fancy flying wouldn't be too hard on you. My bad."

"What you and _I_ have experienced is irrelevant. We have Steven with us now. Unlike normal, you can't be selfish and reckless. His safety is our top priority."

"I'm _not_ selfish and reckless!" Amethyst said. "Besides, Steven loved it! Right dude?"

Steven made a brave face and gave Amethyst a thumbs up, but looking closely revealed that the digit, along with the half-gem's knees, was wobbling. Amethyst winced internally, bracing herself to turn back and face the _I-told-you-so_ glare of Pearl. The smaller gem just rolled her eyes, burrowing her hands into the pockets of her space clothes, and trudged ahead.

"Yeah, you're welcome for getting you into the dungeon," she called back.

Pearl grimaced, and Steven looked back and forth between the two gems.

"Pearl?"

"Eh, sorry about that, Steven," she said. "Come on, let's get going. Your first lesson awaits."

* * *

With a heavy grunt, Garnet sent the metal scrap that was blocking her path flying. Dusting off her hands, she strode forward, muttering to herself as she navigated the hollow ruin that was the kindergarten.

Once, she knew, this place had been the birthplace of hundreds of gems. The shadows of their forms still lined the deep canyon. However, where once the earth here was rich, full of sustaining minerals, it was now dead and grey. Nothing but wind and ghosts dared disturb it. Jutting up from the ground, and out of the sides of the canyon walls were Injectors; towering, ancient, gem-tech devices that resembled murderous needles. Hence their name.

All at once, Garnet's feet stopped moving. A chill ran down her spine. In the same motion, there was flash, a warping sound, and her gauntlet was smashing its way through… an oddly shaped stone. Puzzled, the large gem looked down at her fist. She reached out with her senses, becoming still as stone. She looked beyond what her eyes could see.

At least. The first two.

From behind a cluster of scrap metal, a dark shape emerged. It crept up behind Garnet, getting ready to pounce, as she stood still, seemingly in concentration. Then, it pounced! It was vaguely humanoid shaped, but disfigured and monstrous, with no discernable head or legs. As it leapt from the darkness, there was a clatter and commotion as two more things like it came shambling out of shade further in the Kindergarten.

With a grunt, Garnet threw the creature off of her and over her shoulder, towards its approaching hunt-mates. She summoned her gauntlets, and assumed a fighting position. The creature she attacked seemed to hiss at her, despite its lack of a mouth, and as it did, it approached a beam of light that broke the shade of the nearest injector. As Garnet got a good look at the monster, a hand went to her mouth.

It was made from many interconnected limbs, seemingly stitched together by light. The limbs were various pastel colors.

The limbs belonged to gems.

As she stood in horror, Garnet was not looking up. From various holes in the cliff-side, more dark shapes were emerging. One after the other, they came out to stand like curious neighbors watching from the window. Then, following a rather large, fist-shaped creature's lead, they jumped down, with various thuds, around Garnet. 'She was surrounded. Then, all of the creatures rushed in at once! She couldn't defend!

"G- _ah!_ " Garnet blinked, suddenly, taking a half-step backwards. She was standing alone in the Kindergarten, cold sweat dripping down her face. She took off her glasses, and wiped her forehead, as well as her eyes. Her legs, she realized, were trembling.

" _Keep it together,_ " she muttered to herself.

"You saw them!" She seemed to answer.

" _I know,_ "

"So how can you be so calm?!"

" _If we lose it now, we'll never figure out who did this. We'll never make it back to warn Steven."_

Garnet paused. She was right. She took a few deep, calming breaths, and then straightened up, replacing her glasses. As she regained her collection, she sensed movement behind her. Right on schedule. As the creature jumped out from the shadows in a familiar fashion, Garnet sidestepped, catching the gem-mutation in mid air. She held it in her hands, grimacing as she looked at it's mangled form, and with a swift crushing motion, dispersed the creature's physical form. Then, all that was left was a distorted mish-mash of gemstone shards, fused into one.

Garnet gagged.

"Who did this?" She asked herself, rage seething through her teeth.

Right on time, another pair of creatures began to edge out from the shadowy scrap-piles in front of her. Garnet grimaced, glancing up at the pockmarked cliff-side. She had to move. Without a word, she turned on her heel and sprinted away, leaving the gem monsters in her dust, heading towards the warp pad. Any moment now, the other creatures would sense her, and she would be buried. As much as it pained her, it wasn't in her power to save them right now.

It killed her inside, but all she could do was run.

* * *

"Lesson number 3, Steven," Pearl said, a sense of teacherly duty chiming in her voice. "What do you think this is?"

Pearl was standing next to a partially destroyed piece of architecture, which was ornate, alien, and completely foreign to Steven. It was tall, slender, and has a spiraling pattern to its design, like a large, unspun drill. Amethyst scoffed, turning around and stopping her steady pace to watch the lesson unfold. Pearl waited patiently.

"Uh," he said, tapping his chin thoughtfully, "a weird vase?"

Amethyst laughed out loud, and had to cover her mouth, and Pearl too smiled slightly.

"No, Steven," she said, as the boys cheeks turned slightly pink. "This is a telebrazier. It was used to hold light crystals before we…"

Amethyst, who knew exactly why, kept a hold of her tongue. Despite the painfully curious look on their young ward's face, and Amethyst's own feelings about the matter, Pearl was right in a way to spare him the gruesome details of the pre-war relics. He didn't need to know that the gems that were held here, the gems that lit up the Sky Spire's extravagant parties, were in fact living beings. It was one of many cruel discoveries that led the Crystal Gems to rebellion. As the two war veterans coldly remembered those dark times, Steven felt the sudden shift in mood, but was too naïve or too interested to restrain himself from pursuing the subject further.

"Before what?" He asked.

Pearl shook her head, gingerly rubbing her temples.

"I'm sorry, Steven. Another time," she said. "I know you're curious, but, there's a lot that needs to get done, and a lot for you to learn."

Steven looked at Pearl, puzzled. Then, he looked to Amethyst. That made the smaller gem a bit uncomfortable. She felt bad that she didn't have the answers the boy was looking for. She rubbing the back of her neck, beneath her mountain of hair, and looked away, somewhat ashamed. Even more confused, Steven turned back to Pearl, who tried to give him a reassuring smile. He mirrored her.

"I know it doesn't all make sense yet," she said. "You only _just_ became a Crystal Gem, after all. Give yourself some time."

Steven nodded, his confidence restored, an eager look in his eyes. He barreled ahead, past Pearl and Amethyst, to lead the way up the enormous, half-crumbling, spiral staircase that was large enough for a car to drive up and down. It dominated the center of the dungeon, and seemed to lead up and up to whatever awaited them at the very top.

"Woah," said Steven, gazing up in awe. He tried to squint against the sun to see up there, but could not. He shook his head, and bounded on, his excited gait forcing Amethyst and Pearl to slightly pick up their pace. The two gems trailed behind Steven, Pearl keeping her gaze on him, Amethyst's eyes drifting with thought. It took a moment, but eventually Pearl picked up on the purple gem's emotions, and turned to look at her.

"Amethyst," she said tentatively. The two of them had a hot-and-cold relationship at its best, and an on-and-off disgust for each other at their worst. However, Pearl knew what a lack of team cohesion could do to an otherwise successful mission, and with Garnet's absence, she felt the need to step up as leader. That meant checking in on her teammates. "Is everything alright?"

Amethyst glared over at Pearl, only one eye visible behind a curtain of white hair. Unfortunately for the taller of the two aliens, Amethyst was not the type to be pleasant for pleasantries sake, nor was she one to forget quickly, and the expression she made was one of confusion, annoyance, and guarded defiance.

"Since when is that a priority for you?" She asked. Pearl faltered.

"I mean-! It's not that…" she shook her head, her cheeks flushing a faint periwinkle color. She closed her eyes, her brows knit, and tried to retain her cool. "We're teammates, Amethyst. I care about your wellbeing."

Amethyst studied Pearl's face. After a long moment, she decided the pale gem was being earnest enough for her, and turned to face her, crossing her arms over her chest and popping out her hip.

"Alright," she said, "well, 'teammate', I'm actually not fine. My head still hurts from being Sugilite, you and Garnet can't seem to make up your minds on how you want to hunt the rest of the gems, let alone train Steven, and on top of it all? On top of everything, Pearl, is the fact that Homeworld gems might be here, on Earth, and we are _not_ ready for that!"

Her voice echoed across the empty stairwell. Pearl, her eyes wide, had taken a step back, and was trying to find her words. With a sigh, and a shake of her head, Amethyst turned away from the other gem, holding her own arm with one hand.

"I know that you like to think of the war as the golden days," she said. "I get it. I miss when it was 4 of us too… But the war was the worst time in my life. Things have gotten way better, and… I'm not ready to do it again. I'm not ready."

"They weren't glory days for me, either," Pearl admitted. "It was… hell, honestly. Never knowing what would come next. Being tossed out of the only life I ever knew."

"It _was_ the only life I knew," Amethyst chimed in. They both nodded somberly.

"And then…"

"There was Rose," Amethyst said.

"And Garnet," Pearl insisted, "... and you."

Amethyst, who had been absently staring at the ornate gem architecture on the wall before her, turned now to look at Pearl, her eyes glittering. Both of them were teary eyed. They both half-laughed, and looked away awkwardly.

"I'm sorry I called you reckless and selfish," Pearl said.

"Wow, did you just apologize? Did you get replaced with a different Pearl last time you got poofed?" Amethyst chided, almost smiling wryly. Pearl gave her a rueful smile in return.

"I _am_ capable of it, you know. I was _made_ for etiquette and-" she stopped, suddenly, her head snapping straight ahead. Her eyes scanned the stairway and found… nothing. She turned back to Amethyst, who at first seemed confused, but realization soon dawned on her too.

"Where's Steven?" She asked.

Just then, there was a loud crashing sound, like something heavy falling down. It came from above them. Both gem's looked up, and then to each other. The fire in their eye's met, and they eached for each other. The moment their hands met, a pulsating rhythm began to make its way through them, a solitary melody only they could dance to. In moments, the two gems began to glow.

In moments, the gems became one.


	8. Crashing Skies

**Author's Note:** _Hey again! Welcome to another (very, very late night) chapter of Steven Universe! This one's long, so grab a snack and a blanket and get ready! Also, if you're enjoying the series, be sure to Bookmark the fic to keep up with new chapters. We're getting close to the end, which means you don't wanna miss things like the finale, post-credit scenes, and more! Anyway, that's enough from me. Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 8 - Crashing Skies**

Garnet emerged from the warp pad in a rush, taking lengthy strides towards the center of the house, frantically looking around for the other Crystal Gems. To her dismay, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven were nowhere to be seen. She even looked under Steven's pillow. With a frustrated sigh, she extended her third eye, and opened the door to step out onto the front porch. She hardly had a moment to adjust to her surroundings before a beam of energy engulfed her line of sight. With a gasp, Garnet blinked, and she was standing in the living room once more.

"What the-?" She muttered, dashing to the window and squatting down as quietly as she could. Deftly, she lifted the moth-eaten cabin curtain, and finally caught a glimpse of her assailant.

Garnet's heart jumped into her throat.

Hovering in the air, barely 20 meters away from the front porch of the temple, was a spaceship. Not just any spaceship, but a Gem warship. It was a daunting frigate in the shape of a green, humanoid hand, with its finger pointed directly at the front door. Garnet cursed to herself. She was boxed in. The Homeworld Gems had come, just as Amethyst had suspected; that much was clear. Nobody else in the galaxy built such vessels, and there wasn't a pirate force in the quadrant that could dare besiege and commandeer a Hand Ship, due to their pinpoint accuracy and devastating firepower.

Garnet knew that she had little time to think: it was time for action. A part of her wished that the others had been there when she had arrived. Were Amethyst and Pearl there, they would have stood a much more formidable chance. On the contrary, what would have happened if the others had returned, Steven in tow, to face the dangerous end of a Hand Ship? Unlike Garnet, they did not possess a mystical third eye. Unlike Garnet, they had no Futurevision.

in that moment she heard the telltale charging of the Hand Ship's main weapon. It was a sound that brought back awful memories. Garnet realized that the ship had slightly changed its angle, apparently having spotted her at the window, and was now aiming to blast her away, straight through the glass. The tall gem sprang up like a wound chord, bolting across the room and making a wild leap as the energy beam came blasting through the front window… and the rest of the wall around it. Dust and debris came crumbling down, the entire front porch toppling down into the sands below. Small flames ate at the edges of what was still intact of the temple exterior.

Garnet strained, shoving pieces of fallen rooftop off of her, and stumbled out into the now open living room, finding herself face to face with the Hand Ship's index finger. One of her arms was injured from a fallen support beam, but she used that hand to clutch her good arm, and held out that hand to her side. The cannon, as she knew, took a crucial moment to recharge. Normally, it was admitted one, as it rarely missed it's shot on the average target.

Garnet was not the average target.

"You can come back as many times as you want!" She shouted. There was a heavy, air-distorting sound and a pulse of light as the gem summoned a ridiculously large gauntlet on her good hand, the entire armament easily as big as she was. "The Earth doesn't belong to you!"

With a heavy grunt, Garnet dashed forward and swung with all of her might, the gauntlet colliding with the front facing finger of the Hand Ship with a satisfying, metallic _thunk!_ The ship actually swayed ever so slightly in the air at the force of the impact. In the days of the Gem War, that move would have sent a Hand Ship flying. However, the ships these days must have been made from tougher stuff, as she hardly made a dent, and she was suddenly staring at a slowly gathering light at the end of a slightly scuffed, green, fingertip. No time to dodge! With a panicked gasp, she blinked.

She was standing in the living room again. The walls were intact. Garnet gently held her temples. She hadn't used her Futurevision this many times in one day for a very long time, and it was starting to become a strain.

"How long can we keep this up?" She wondered.

" _We have to buy enough time for the other's to get here,_ " she mumbled. " _But how?_ "

Garnet looked around. Her options were dwindling. She gritted her teeth.

Only a potentially infinite number of tries to go.

* * *

In his excitement to see what the rest of the dungeon had to offer, Steven rushed ahead, forgetting momentarily about the other two gems. He scampered up the twisting staircase, marveling at the towering gem structures that rose to face him. Even at the dizzying height he knew he had reached after several rotations around the stairway's central pillar, the ancient gem carvings seemed to meet Steven head on. In its day, it must have been nothing but extravagant.

Eventually, Steven grew bored (and out of breath) and so took the next exit off of the stairwell, and out onto one of the platforms that jutted out from the sides of the spire, forming several rims that served as floors. As he did so, the texture of the floor changed, and suddenly the _flap-clap_ of his flip-flops echoed around him as he walked. He let his curiosity lead him, drifting from spectacle to spectacle. He was feeli,.ng confident in himself. A true Crystal Gem, scouring an ancient dungeon! He couldn't hold back his grin, even as he wondered to himself where the so-called 'galaxy warp' was, and where a gem monster might hide here, if there were one.

Steven's thoughts were cut off by a sudden flash of movement in the corner of his eye. He started, with a little exclamation, before _flap-clapping_ after what he thought he had seen. He rounded a bend, going further into this floor of the spire, and found himself in a long, nearly featureless hallway. A few meters down the hall from him, frozen and somehow staring him down with no eyes, was some kind of robot. It was an opaque, pastel green color, and the base of its body was round, with spider-like legs protruding from the sides. Steven and the little robot stared at each other for a few long seconds, before the machine began to scuttle down the hallway at a breakneck pace. It was heading away from Steven.

"Hey, wait!" He called after it, giving chase.

The robot payed him no heed, scuttling away as the boy flapped after him. It took him left, right, and through a number of halls, turns, and stairways that he would never have had a chance to remember. He was focused solely on chasing down this interesting new development, however, and soon, their little chase led to the highest point of the Sky Spire: the roof.

The roof of the Spire was a wide, flat affair, with thick wisps of fluffy cloud rotating around the sides. Steven reckoned that he didn't want to look over the side, for fear of losing his lunch. The ground was made of the same alien stonework as the inside, however, far on the other end of the stairwell he had ascended, Steven noticed some slightly more familiar structures. Platforms made of opaque white crystal. Warp pads. All told, there were a half dozen of them, and all of them were in awful condition, cracked, broken, and covered in debris and the grime of time.

All of them except one.

Steven watched the little green robot make its way across the roof, and as his gaze followed the bots trajectory, he took note of a new development. The robot had friends. Dozens of them. Nearly thirty carbon copies of the little drone were swarming around one of the warp pads. Some of them were squirting out an odd, sparkling goo onto the pad. Other's had things that appeared to be blowtorches, fine points of energy, and were using them to do… something. Steven started to walk forward to take a closer look, when all of a sudden, the robots stopped moving. Then, all at once, they scuttled back, moving clear of the warp pad. Steven looked around in confusion, before realizing the warp pad looked brand new, sparkling and shining in pristine condition.

Then, the signature chime of the warp sounded, and an unfamiliar figure emerged from the beam of light that accompanied it.

She stood as tall as Pearl, with green skin and a variety of mechanical attachments that seemed to go beyond the usual style of light-clothing Steven was used to the gems wearing. Specifically, she had an eyepiece as well as a holographic projection floating in front of her. The gem swung her head in a steady, calculated arc. Steven ran and ducked behind one of the destroyed warp pads, peeking his nose around it just slightly to continue observing the newcomer. She lifted her wrist to her face, pressed some button that Steven could not see, and then began to speak. Steven, to his surprise, could understand her.

"Earth Log number zero zero one," she muttered. "My first assessment of this place: shoddy. Everything is in disrepair, but, what did I expect? Its not as if the rebel clods would know anything about the upkeep of a gem structure like this. I imagine it broke down centuries ago and they just never bothered to fix it again. Childish."

With heavy metallic clanking, the gem began to walk a slow circle round the half-ring of warp pads that lined the edge of the Spire's rooftop. Steven, with a skip of his heartbeat, realized that she would eventually make her way to him at this rate. The half-gem swallowed. He really was starting to wish he hadn't run ahead of Pearl and Amethyst. Somehow, he felt naked and afraid, here, alone, facing what he could only assume was a Homeworld gem. Steven didn't know much about the other gems of the universe, but looking upon the aliens cybernetic enhancements, her cold tone, and her entourage of scouts, he felt a small chill run down his spine. He started to backpedal, to try and find a better hiding place before she spotted him (perhaps back the way he had come) when suddenly, his foot stepped on something slippery.

All at once, Steven was stumbling backwards, and with a grunt, he hit the ground on his back. Groaning, he sat up, getting a good look at what had tripped him up.

It was the first robot.

Then, the little thing began to emit a loud, alarm-like noise. Steven's eyes went wide, and he turned to see the green gem whip her head in his direction. He let out a little yelp and pulled himself to his feet, making a mad dash for the stairway that led back into the dungeon. Unfortunately, with her mechanical limbs, the gem was faster, and overtook Steven quickly, snatching him up by the back of his star-emblazoned shirt.

"Ah! Please, don't hurt me!" Steven shouted, throwing his arms up in front of his face.

The gem peered at him from behind a green-tinged visor.

"It appears that the local _humans_ are almost exactly as described by the Tanzanite historians. Chirping, fleshy meat-things," she said. "Not only that, but it seems that they have infiltrated the Galaxy Warp. Luckily, they're too primitive to utilize them. Imagine what would happen if these backwater creatures took to the stars."

She chuckled to herself, and with a twinge of embarrassment, Steven noted that it was true. He was not capable of controlling the warp pad on his own. He had often wondered if he would ever be able to, if it was just another part of the abilities he would inherit, but it seemed that the green alien that was his captor was disproving that theory.

"No matter, _human_ ," she said. Steven noted that every time she said the word, she not only slightly mispronounced it, but also said it with an air of disgust. She clearly was not a fan. "I'm sure my Diamond will give me a promotion for your capture. She loves to give Blue gifts, and there are few she enjoys more than a new pet."

Steven, reeling in confusion, barely had time to parse through the words when the gem pressed yet another button on her wrist. Before his eyes, the large mass of green, orb-like drones began to drastically shift, each one unhinging, twisting, and morphing so that it became just one part of a massive puzzle. Before long, the thirty-odd separate machines had melded together to form one large pod, large enough for 2 to 3 gems to ride inside, and with apparent seating. As the gem began to carry him towards the pod, Steven realized what was happening, and began to speak up.

"Um, hey," he said, "do you think we can talk about this? My name's Steven. What's yours?"

"My designation is Peridot Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG," she said, almost out of habit. Then, realizing who she was speaking to and the absurdity that it was to answer his questions, she spoke nothing more. That didn't seem to deter Steven, and even as she produced a pair of energized handcuffs that effectively bound Steven's hands, he tried to continue the conversation.

"So, what do i call you? 5XG? Facet-2? Perry?"

The Peridot made a distasteful face.

"You will not call me anything," she said. "You will remain silent until transported to Homeworld, where my Diamond will approve you. Then, you'll more than likely be relinquished into Holly-Blue Agate's custody for assimilation."

"Assimilation?" Steven frowned. He wasn't sure what the word meant, but he knew that it didn't sound good.

Peridot knit her brows. She was already growing annoyed by the incessant chatter of this _human,_ and was beginning to wonder if it would truly be worth it to cart the clamoring thing all the way back to the Hand Ship, where she could dump it in a holding cell until they returned to Homeworld. She decided it was, as the affection of her Diamond outweighed all, and after tossing the bound Steven into a rear seat, she took her place in the pilots chair. With the push of one last wrist button, a dark visor closed over them, sealing them off from the outside.

Steven observed as she performed various hand signals, and then a holographic control pad appeared before her. He gulped. This was it. He was going to be captured by Homeworld gems, and all because he had ran off on his own. He had gotten overconfident, but in the face of danger, he had been useless. He hadn't even tried to summon his shield or bubble. However, thinking back to his subpar performance at the car wash, Steven began to wonder if he still could. These thoughts and more rushed through his mind as the engine of the pod began to whir to life, signifying the imminence of their departure.

Then, with an air-piercing _sheen!_ There was a piercing ray of light!

A rumbling explosion shook one side of the pod, and Steven tumbled to the floor, unable to support himself with his hands bound. He heard Peridot grunt, and struggle with the controls. After he had finally righted himself, he caught glimpse of what was causing the commotion.

Standing 10 meters away from them was another gem that Steven had never seen before. Her skin was a pastel, lavender color, and she had long, tumbling, cream colored hair that was half up and half down. She had plump lips, four eyes and arms, and was clad in a flowing battle gown made from light-fabric. Despite having never seen her before, something about the gem was familiar. In her hands she held a towering long bow, easily taller than Steven, and crackling dangerously in her grip was an arrow made out of pure energy. The projectile was aimed at the pod. Directly at Steven! The arrow flew, and the half-gem flinched as the pod took another direct hit, inching it closer to the edge of the Sky Spire.

"Ah, at last," growled Peridot. Steven heard a glimmer of satisfaction in her voice that gave him chills. "The Crystal Gems come to play."

That put the pieces together. Steven, his mouth suddenly dropping agape, added up the numbers. Crystal Gems? The familiarity was suddenly clear.

The gem standing before him, somehow, was both Amethyst and Pearl at once.

Fusion was not a gem power that they had taught Steven about, and in truth it was a hotly debated subject among the senior Crystal Gems. The ability to unify, to focus on a mutual goal so strongly that your relationship becomes tangible. It was an advanced technique, and not one to be taken lightly. Garnet in particular had been pushing for Steven to learn about it, but Pearl often warned that he might not be able to fuse at all. Thus, not wanting to disappoint the boy with unattainable goals, they had remained quiet, only using Fusion when they were running out of options.

Now, however, Amethyst and Pearl were united in their goal of saving Steven, and protecting the earth. They had become one. They had become Opal.

Opal scowled at the amalgamation of robots, drawing back yet another energy arrow. So far she had blasted away two of the six appendages that produced the jets the propelled the pod. One or two more might be sufficient enough to send the thing dropping like a stone, or at least careening out of control. That would allow Opal to win the fight with minimal difficulty.

Peridot had other plans.

As the fused gem, who stood about as tall as the mecha, drew back her bow, she was met suddenly with a rush of green, as the Homeworld gem pushed her machine forward, attempting to ram it directly into Opal. The large gem was caught unawares by the suddenness of the attack, and her shot flew wide. The pod slammed directly into the big, purple gem, and she grunted in pain as both went skidding along the ground, gut-wrenchingly close to the edge of the spire. Steven, seeing the slight twinge of fear appear in the fused gem's eyes, shouted out reassurance.

"Um, hey! Giant woman! You can do it!" He called out. She seemed to notice, her two sets of eyes squinting in at the pod's front window and then snapping open in realization.

"Steven?" She said. The tone was so familiar it gave Steven chills. Looking at her up close, she recognized both sets of eyes. Amethyst's sharp, feline violets, and Pearl's weepy, periwinkle irises. Opal's eyes met his, and she formed a complicated smile: something between embarrassed and determined. "Hold on!"

With great effort, the fused gem began to slowly push back against the gem-tech machine. Peridot, realizing that her initial onslaught was aided by surprise and she was now outmatched, growled to herself, making quick calculations in her mind. Then, with a sudden shift at the controls, Steven felt himself tumbling around in the cockpit once more as the pod went launching backwards, away from Opal. The green gem had seen the moment of connection between she and the supposed "Steven." While she pondered how and why the relationship existed, she had more important things to focus on than its origin. It would prove a useful fault.

Opal recovered fully, now facing down the pod much the same way as she had at the beginning of the encounter, a good distance away, bow in hand. However, this time, as she went to pull another energy arrow, the pod suddenly lurched just over the edge of the spire, hovering dangerously above the open sky. There was a hissing sound as the hatch of the machine opened, baring Peridot and Steven to the world. Opal hesitated.

Peridot didn't. She grabbed Steven by his curls, much to his dismay, with one enhanced hand, and held him out so that he dangled over the open air. The boy's stomach dropped as he looked down, and unbeknownst to him, he began to scream in terror. Opal grimaced.

"You have a choice to make, Crystal clods _!"_ Peridot shouted at them. "If it makes things easier, I doubt your _Steven_ friend will even feel the impact."

Without another word, her cybernetic digits released their grip on Steven. He didn't drop immediately, as he frantically grasped at her hand, but with a wrinkle of her lip, she retreated the extremity entirely into the rest of her mechanical arm, severing the connection to the young half-gem, and sending him plummeting below the cloud line.

"STEVEN!" Opal shouted, dashing forward and diving past Peridot's pod, which swerved in the air to give her a wide berth, the hatch closing.

The fusion pulled herself into a graceful swan dive, cutting through the air like a knife as she aimed for Steven. The boy was falling, his back towards the ground, screaming bloody murder as he grasped at nothing. Closer, closer now. The ground below them seemed so far away. They could see the very curves of the planet, far in the distance. Awaiting them at the bottom of the drop was a deadly, deep blue ocean, and a rocky cliffside. If Steven hit them at this speed, from such a height…

Opal shuddered, shaking the thought out of her mind and doubling her efforts, slicing her way through the fall until, with a grateful soaring feeling in her heart, she caught Steven in two of her arms. The boy's cries didn't stop, and his eyes were squeezed shut, tears flowing freely out of them. Grimacing, Opal used her other two hands to draw back her bow, producing a special light arrow that would tether itself to the bow when it was shot. The projectile released, leaving a long, coiling trail of light, and then stuck into the cliffside. The pair continued to fall for a few seconds as the light-line grew taught, and then suddenly, they were swinging sideways, Opal using their momentum to create a pendulum motion. Then, she gradually caught her footing, running along the side of the cliff until she skidded to a stop, feet firmly planted on the cliffside, holding onto the light-line like a spelunker. The fusion looked down to the young boy cradled in her arms.

"Steven… Are you alright?" She cooed. Steven, curled up in the fetal position, slowly turned to look up at her, tears still streaming down his face. He cracked a smile, and gave her a thumbs up. Opal laughed, looking at the boy incredulously. Then, there was the familiar chime of a warp pad, although this time there was an added layer of bass. Opal and Steven craned their necks to look up, catching the last traces of the warp beam as it dissolved into space.

"The galaxy warp…" muttered Steven. "Um, hey, giant lady? I feel weird calling you that… What's your name?"

Opal's gaze lingered on the dispersing warp particles for a moment before she looked back to Steven.

"Hm? Oh, yes," she said. "I am Opal."

Steven beamed, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Hi Opal! I'm Steven!"

Opal looked confused for a moment, but then smiled in return.

"I know," she said.

"Should… we go tell Garnet?"

Opal nodded.

"Yes. Let's go tell Garnet."


	9. Rose Quartz

**Author's Note:** _Hey again! Welcome to another (late night) chapter of Steven Universe! We're really starting to get into the gritty parts of the story, and I'd love to hear what you think! If you like what you read, leave a Bookmark/Kudos or if you didn't, be sure to leave a Comment! I always take your thoughts into account as I continue to craft the Danger Watch universe! Anyway, without further ado, let's get into the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 9 - Rose Quartz**

As Peridot arrived on the deck of the Hand Ship, she couldn't shake an odd feeling in the pit of her chest. Her plan had gone seamlessly: the galaxy warp was operational and soon, they would be able to link it to the Homeworld network and conquer this scrap of rock once and for all. Her Diamond would shower her with praise, and even her smug captain would be forced to show her some recognition.

It was everything she had ever wanted.

And yet… There was that feeling. A sinking feeling that she couldn't place. She knew one thing: she didn't like it.

All Hand Ships were equipped with a warp station near the rear of the ship. These were used to make the boarding and offboarding of the vessel easier. This was where Peridot teleported to from the Sky Spire, as she had the coordinates saved on her wrist computer. Unfortunately, the placement of the warp station made for a long walk to the command deck, and all of that time ignoring the eyes of her Ruby subordinates put her into her own head. She was wanton to get caught up in her thoughts on her own, but long, silent hallways were not exactly a deterrent to her wandering mind.

Despite the sinking feeling not going away, Peridot felt a bit of relief as she arrived on the deck of the ship. Having a task might distract her from her addled mind. Perhaps this was simply one of the supposed 'attacks of anxiety' that era 2 Peridots were rumored to be afflicted with. Shaking her head, she prepared to address the captain, who was standing up and out of her chair, looking at the viewport. There was a sound echoing across the deck, and Peridot realized, with some confusion, that it was the captain's laughter. A mirthful, low chuckle that nearly blended seamlessly with the muted sounds of explosions from outside. Casting her gaze at the viewport, Peridot discovered the source of her captain's apparent amusement.

Before them, dashing across a field of sand (Peridot knew they were referred to as "beaches") was a gem. She was tall, with muscular legs, and a burgundy color scheme. She had three eyes, each focused and determined as she ran, leaping and dodging. Every few seconds, an earth-shattering beam of energy came ricocheting out of the pointed index finger of the Hand Ship, which did a slow swivel in the air, at the behest of the Ruby crewmates, to stay locked onto their target.

"Galaxy Warp is operational, Captain Jasper."

As Peridot stood beside her to watch the light show, the captain seemed to finally notice her.

"Technician Peridot," she said, her face suddenly solid as stone, as if she had never been chuckling. "Glad you finally made it. Look what we've found."

" _Another_ fusion?" Peridot said, wrinkling her nose slightly. The comment caught the larger gem's attention, and she turned to leer down at the technician with yellow eyes.

"Another?"

* * *

It was the 400th try that worked. Garnet had tried too many different methods to count. At one point she had simply done nothing, waiting to see how long it would take for the Hand Ship to simply grow impatient and blast away. It hadn't taken very long. Across her various attempts she employed a variety of tactics, from conversation to confrontation, sneaking to sniping. Then, on reset number 400, she had vaulted out of a side window, sneaking along the cliffs beside the temple, until the Hand Ship had spotted her.

Now, she was vaulting across the beach, dodging laser blasts, a couple of beads of sweat dripping down her forehead, from the massive expenditure of her power. It had been too long since the last time she had pushed herself. Far too long. A part of Garnet cursed herself for getting so lax, but another part of her reasoned that she couldn't have known, and there was no use getting beat up over it and risking her concentration. The latter part of herself won the argument… As she often did.

She was running out of room.

A particularly narrow miss sent her rolling in the sand, trying to scramble for cover behind a large rock formation before the Hand Ship could recharge. She was running on fumes. Another reset might be her last.

Luckily, she was able to drag herself behind the shelter of the uneven stones, and catch at least a moments breath, her back against them. A routine sweep of the Sky Spire, especially with Pearl at the helm, should not have taken this long. Though, she reasoned, they did have the added burden of Steven. That could change the odds of their situation dramatically. Garnet swore again as she heard the now chillingly familiar sound of the cannon's beam gaining energy. The blast would tear through her cover, she knew, and probably her too if she didn't move. She had barely gotten four seconds of breath.

The laser fired.

Garnet didn't move fast enough.

Opal did.

The moment just before the laser was released from the tip of the Hand Ship's forefinger, an arrow of light went streaking across it, throwing the finger off course and sending the laser smashing harmlessly into a nearby dune. Garnet saw the beam miss, and sucked in a breath, before rushing out from behind the rocks. She saw Opal, standing on the beach, her bow drawn and aimed at the Hand Ship, her long, pearlescent hair being blown by the ship's distortion of gravity.

"Garnet!" She called. The usually towering Garnet was a fraction of the giant alien's height. "Are you ok? You look beat up!"

"I'm fine!" Garnet shouted over the loud droning the Hand Ship had begun emitting. It was a warbling, pulsating noise that seemed to bely a malfunction in the main cannon. "What's important is that Steven is ok!"

"Hey, Garnet!" Steven called out, from standing behind Opal's leg.

Garnet's eyes widened in horror.

" _You brought Steven?"_ She shouted at Opal.

* * *

"Main artillery is nonoperational. I have bots going to fix it."

"How long?"

"Er- Approximately 5 earth minutes."

Jasper growled. That was too long.

"Is that new piece of gear operational?"

"Well... Technically, yes, but I have only tested it on peb-"

"Lower the ship to the beach," Jasper interrupted, rising from her chair and pulling her cape over her shoulders.

"Captain?"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

With that, Jasper was gone from the deck, leaving the technician Peridot alone with a crew of Ruby soldiers and her own thoughts.

"Technician Peridot?" One Ruby called. Her gem was located directly where her left eye would be. Peridot turned to her, eyes narrowed, to signify that she could continue. "Shall I lower us to the beach?"

Peridot paused, and then nodded. Seconds later, the ship began to descent, opening the "hand" of the ship so that it was now splayed, palm up, fingertips touching the shoreline. A ping on the main dashboard told her that the captain was about to get on the lift and exit the ship. As she watched the little icon move, she thought of the piece of equipment that Jasper had referred to. Again, there was that feeling at the core of her being. The technician squirmed. Why would it not go away?

"Hnn…. Hold the lift!" Peridot said suddenly, so much so that she startled one of the nearby Ruby's. The Ruby with the gemstone eye turned to her again.

"Technician Peridot?" She said questioningly. Peridot winced, and regained her composure before issuing her next order.

"Hold the lift. I'm… I'm going up with the captain."

* * *

"What is going on? Why is Steven here?" Garnet demanded.

Opal clutched her head, and with a sudden burst of light, she vanished, and Amethyst and Pearl took her place. Both began to quickly rattle off explanations of the events that had transpired, and even Garnet had to eventually hold up a hand to cease the incoherent chatter. Just as she did, the Hand Ship began to twist in mid air, turning its palm towards the sky, extending its fingers like some kind of gangplank.

"Get him out of here!" Garnet said, taking a few steps forward to put herself between the ship and the others. Amethyst and Pearl swapped glances. Garnet looked pretty exhausted, and they were worried about her facing whatever would come out of the ship on her own. They stood their ground. Garnet turned over her shoulder and growled. "Steven! Go!"

Steven, however, stood frozen. The shock of the situation was beginning to dawn on him, and his eye were glued in horrified fixation on the Hand Ship. Garnet grimaced. Then, there was a loud hissing sound, and the smoke that signified an atmosphere change began to billow out of the palm of the Hand Ship. Moments later, two figures presented themselves. One was tall and broad shouldered, matching Garnet's stature, with a mane of wild white hair, and a black mantle and cape flowing out menacingly behind her. Beside her stood an all too familiar green gem, wearing cybernetic enhancements.

Upon seeing the expressions of anger and pain on the opposing gems faces, Peridot felt no remorse. She knew of the danger they presented to her Diamond's interests. To _all_ of the Diamond's interests. However, looking past the rebels, to the irredeemably pathetic human, something continued to writhe in the technician's chest. It gnawed at her. Seeing, in his eyes, the same fear that had been there before. When he had been scrabbling at her hand… The gem actually winced. Luckily for her, her superior was busy leering down upon the rebel gems to notice.

What was this?

"So," Jasper called down, splintering Peridot's inner monologue with her booming, razor edged alto. "This is all that's left, huh?"

Silence ensued, her words echoing across the beach. The only noise came from the waves and the crackling of green flames on the beach, all of which became mere white noise to the combatants. Jasper sneered.

"I must say… I expected more… You don't have any back up, do you?" She predicted correctly. Her eyes shifted from one gem to the other. "A defect. A _Pearl._ A shameless permafusion. And… What, is that?"

"It's nothing," Peridot said somewhat quickly. "It's just a human. They're harmless natives to this planet. It must be their little butler or someth-"

"I know what a human is," Jasper cut in.

Steven listened in stunned silence as the words left the gem's mouth. Once again, he found himself slightly surprised that he could even understand her. Watching her lips move, they didn't match up to any of the English words he was hearing in his brain, and yet, it seemed to translate with no effort. Perhaps this was one of his burgeoning gem powers. Or, perhaps he had always known how to speak this language. Or, even stranger, maybe whatever language the gems spoke natively simply translated itself to whomever heard it? Steven scratched the last idea off of the list, because he was pretty sure he had read that in a comic book, but the first two ideas were so compelling that he only checked back in at the word "permafusion."

He looked to Amethyst, who glanced down at him once, a nervous bead of sweat dripping down the side of her face.

"Amethyst?" He began to ask.

"Keep cool, Steve-o," she said through gritted teeth, more abruptly than she intended to. "Just let us talk this out."

Steven was young, and he was even naïve, but even he knew that Amethyst was trying to make the situation appear less dire than it was this time. His expression darkened in a bit.

"But I'm-"

"Steven! Go! I'm serious!" Garnet interrupted, still holding her ground as a bulwark between the others and the two figures.

On the palm of the ship, Jasper crossed her arms, and was shaking her head.

"I can't believe it," she said. "Here I was expecting to come out and find a host of rebels to wipe out head to head… Instead, I find this sorry lot. I mean, _this_ is the so called Terran Resistance? _This_ is Rose Quartz's army? And their leader nowhere in sight."

The large, orange gem looked down to Peridot.

"How long on the cannon?"

"Erh- Approximately two of this planet's minutes."

"Feh," Jasper exclaimed, turning and walking back, apparently towards the lift with a whip of her cape. "This was a waste of my time. Make the preparations, and then fire when ready. All weapons on standby."

"But- Jasper!"

The captain turned abruptly to glare golden daggers at Peridot, cutting her outburst short and turning her into a meek subordinate in the same moment.

"I mean- Captain Jasper. Launching all of our combat weapons would result in a severe cut to our fuel supply. We might struggle to get back to Homeworld. Plus, it will leave us vulnerable to counterattack."

The tension was cut by a deep belly laugh from Jasper. She actually held her side and tossed her head back in the throngs of laughter, before shaking her head and looking down at her technician.

"Counterattack? Pardon my optimism, Technician Peridot, but I find it hard to fear any sort of counterattack from this bunch. You have my orders."

With that, she kept walking… Past the lift that would take them down into the ship, and onto the end of one of index finger. There, the captain thought smugly, she would have a good view of the end of the Crystal Gems. Peridot, not wanting to further question Jasper's orders, remained where she was, but began to press a number of images on her wrist hologram, before drawing a circle in the air with one of her mechanical digits. As she did so, the ship began to lift itself up from its position on the beach, pouring sand down from beneath the fingers, as it began to aim it's cannon. This time, it held each finger out flat, and each one began to glow and charge with various gem tech weaponry that was attached to the ends. The amount of kinetic force being charged began to whip the air up around the gems, tossing sand, hair, and debris in every direction. The ship began to aim.

"Steven! You have to go, _NOW!_ " Garnet shouted, her voice carrying over the droning of the Hand Ship. Pearl and Amethyst glanced helplessly at him for a second, and then started towards him. The young half-gem shook his head, taking a step back. He looked back and forth from his family, the gems, and the charging rays of energy that were surrounding all of the hand ship's fingers.

"No, I-" He said, small tears in his eyes. There was a faint glow, emanating from below his shirt "I wanna fight, I wanna… I wanna help- I'm… I'm…"

The droning reached a peak.

The cannon's began to release their energy.

" _I'M A CRYSTAL GEM TOO!_ "

_ka-BOOOOOOM!_

Smoke and sand filled the gem's visions. They through up their arms to defend themselves from the deadly blast, fearing the inevitable, and cursing themselves for not protecting Steven. And then… There was no blast. They each blinked. Then, they looked ahead. There was a faint, pink glow.

Standing in front of them was Steven.

He had summoned Rose's shield.

And it was 10 feet across.

The enormous, hard-light construct, with its complicated, crystalline, rose-like patterns, hovered in the air in front of Steven, who held his hands out as if he had tried to stop the laser blast with them. The sand in front of him had been charred and turned to ash and green fire, but as the smoke cleared, it was revealed that there was not a scratch on him, the gem's, or the Temple. Moment's after the shield manifested, it collapsed, and Steven dropped to one knee. Instantly, Pearl and Amethyst were at his side.

From her perch atop the Hand Ship, Jasper's expression was one of absolute disgust. She looked to Peridot, who was just as shocked, but less repulsed by what had just occurred. The technician sputtered for some kind of explanation, but had none, and Jasper waved her attempts away with a wave of her huge hand, striding forward. There was a distortion of sound in the air, and then with a flash of light, a huge, golden, hammer-shaped helmet appeared around the captain's head. She took one stride, and then dropped off of the side of the levitating gunship, landing with a heavy _thw-ump_ on the sand below.

"That… was Rose Quartz's shield," the menacing alien said, walking forward through the crackling green flames towards Steven, discarding her cape in the sand as she did so. "So you must be her… But… why do you look like that?"

Then, there was a flash of light, and Jasper recoiled as, leaping up from behind Steven, Garnet appeared, delivering a solid punch to the orange gem's jaw. Taking a few steps back, Jasper grinned, rubbing a hand lightly over where she had been struck.

"Oh, good," she said. "I was hoping there'd be a _fight!_ "

With the last syllable she reared back, just as Garnet rushed in with another enraged haymaker. The punch just barely missed, displacing enough air to blow Jasper's hair back. Then, with a heavy _KLANG!_ Jasper headbutted Garnet, her heavy metal helmet connected with, and shattering, the latter gem's glasses. Recoiling, Garnet clutched her face, growling and tossing the splintered shades into the sand.

"Steven, run!" Was all she said, running forward to attempt to strike Jasper once more.

Then, just as she came in, the other gem produced something from her belt. Some kind of baton-like instrument that crackled with bright yellow electricity. The energy being emitted by the baton reflected in all three of Garnet's eyes before, with one deft slice, the blade-like end of the baton passed cleanly through her form, causing it to ripple, distort, and then split down the line of impact entirely. There was a huge blast of smoke, and then it blew away, there was a crater in the ground, with a pair of round gemstones inside of it. Jasper stooped, collecting the gems in her hand and stowing them away before continuing her slow gate forward. Before Amethyst or Pearl could move, there was the sound like air being vacuum-sealed. A layer of pink energy suddenly appeared between them and the outside world. Steven had summoned his bubble defiantly, and was holding his arms out to his sides, willing it to stay impenetrable.

"I just don't get it," Jasper said, her voice slightly muffled through the walls of the bubble, but booming enough so that she could still be heard. "I fought against your armies during the war. I respected your tactics. But this? It's… sickening. How are you so… _weak?!_ "

With that, she headbutted the bubble, and Steven's will was not strong enough. The bubble shattered on impact, and the force of it send he, Amethyst and Pearl flying back. Jasper stooped her ground, however, and snatched Steven out of the air by the collar of his shirt. Exhausted by the use of his power, he hung there, limply, blinking and trying to clear his vision as he looked into the deadly, dangerous yellow eyes of Jasper.

"I don't know what your plan was," she growled, in a voice that only he could hear, even as Amethyst and Pearl rushed forward to stop her. "But take a look around. Your base is ruined, your armies are splintered… You. Have failed."

With that, her head came rushing in towards Steven's, and that was the last thing he saw before everything went black.


	10. Break Out

**Author's Note:** _Hello and welcome to yet another late, late night chapter of Steven Universe! If you're enjoying the story, a Kudos/Bookmark is always appreciated, but I won't keep you too long. Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 10 - Break Out**

With a groan, Steven came to.

"Pearl? Amethyst?" He groaned. Then, his eyes snapped open.

"Garnet."

There was a heavy ringing in his ears, and his head was throbbing with pain, but there was another sensation too, distant and warped, that he couldn't quite make out. After a few long, agonized moments he became aware that it was a sound. Eventually, the young half-gem found the pain in his forehead receding, just slightly, enough for him to pull himself up to sitting and take a look at his environment.

He was in some kind of small, square room, made of metal. It was bathed in a yellow glow, which, he realized, was being cast by a wide sheet of glowing energy that acted as the fourth wall of the room. That, he thought, must be some kind of foreshadowing. Aside from Steven, the room was functionally empty, and for a long while he sat alone in contemplation, trying to rub the pain from his head and stop the ringing. There was something, in the back of his head, that was practically itching his brain. Some fuzzy, ringing sound. He was distracted from it momentarily by the echoing sound of heavy metallic bootsteps, growing closer until a familiar gem suddenly walked into view, on the opposite side of the yellow energy field.

"It's you…" Steven said, wincing as the strange sound shifted up a pitch suddenly. Peridot, who had just arrived, seemed to notice the shift in tone as well, which Steven found strange. The green gem looked at Steven for a long moment, and then her gaze suddenly fell off and to the side. Steven waited a beat before speaking again. "What did you do to Garnet?"

Peridot crossed her arms.

"Hm? Oh, you mean the _fusion_ ," she said. "They were separated, and contained, along with the rest of you."

"Separated?" Steven asked. Peridot seemed to try not to respond, but then looked at the boy, and that strange feeling in her gut exploded.

"Hn- You mean… you don't even know?"

Steven furrowed his brows.

"Where is Garnet?" He said, glowering. The green gem sighed, shaking her head and turning around.

"It's probably in your best interests to forget about your Crystal Gem friends," she said. "I will do my best to get you put into one of the zoo's where you belong, but… It might not hold up in court."

"Court?"

Peridot looked over her shoulder in annoyance at the continued questions.

"That display, earlier? It has complicated things immensely. Not to mention whatever this… _thing_ is that you did to me."

Steven was genuinely stumped by her last comment.

"What I did? To you?" He asked, angrily. "What about what you did to _me?_ You dangled me over a cliff! By my _hair!_ "

At that, Peridot let out an audible wince. Her cheeks flared a dark green behind her visor, and she turned quickly away from Steven as his words made the inflammation in her stomach flare up.

"If you did nothing to me, then… Hrng… What is this awful _feeling?_ "

"Feeling? It's probably guilt! You feel bad, because what you're doing is wrong!"

Peridot froze. The word struck her like a physical blow, as if she had never seen it coming. Steven paused. He hoped that his words might mean something to the gem, and he walked over to the energy field, slowly reaching for her back, which was inches away.

"If… if you really feel bad," he said, "then that's ok… My dad says if you feel bad about something bad that you did, you can't change that. You'll always feel bad. The only thing you can do that will even start to make that feeling go away is good stuff."

Peridot frowned, still not turning to face Steven.

"Good stuff?"

"Sure," Steven said, reaching to comfortingly pat her on the back.

At the sudden contact, Peridot reared back, causing Steven to do the same, both gasping in exclamation. They stared at each other for a few awkward seconds before Peridot squinted.

"Clever tactic, _Steven Human_ ," she said. Steven made a confused face. "You've been getting me to "talk" about so called "feelings" in order to get me to free you and your comrades! I won't fall for it, rebel clod! There is important work that needs to be done with the Cluster and I'm already struggling to keep us on world long enough to complete my research. You and your band of misfit _clods_ are just one more reason for Jasper to wrap up her mission and leave, taking _my ride_ with her!"

Steven shook his head, totally taken aback by the sudden outburst. Peridot herself seemed to be surprised, and with a look of annoyance, she turned away once more.

"Just… don't cause anymore trouble, or else I can't promise that my Diamond will show you mercy," she said.

Then, with that, she left, leaving Steven in a stunned silence. As her bootsteps faded away, Steven looked down at his hand, which had just barely passed through the field of yellow energy to touch Peridot's back. It had been for only a brief second, and it had left his digits feeling tingly and strange, but it had indeed passed through. As he inspected his hand, his brain suddenly placed what the sound was that was rising and falling in the back of his mind.

It was singing.

* * *

Peridot, on her way out of the holding block, heard the door hiss open to reveal the hulking orange form of Jasper. The technician saw rage in the larger gem's eyes, and wisely stepped aside as she stormed over to one of the many energy-guarded cells, slamming her fist aggressively against the wall beside it and snarling at it's inhabitant, the source of the singing that carried all the way across the resounding, metal room.

"Shut up!" Jasper snarled. "Stop singing!"

Peridot watched and waited for her captain's outburst to be finished, glancing once at the gem held prisoner inside of the cage. She was small, smaller even than Peridot, with a blue hue to her light-clothes and a bushy bob cut of blue-white hair, with bangs that covered her forehead down to the top of her nose. She was sitting against the back wall, legs pulled up underneath her lightform dress, singing at the top of her lungs. It was a waning, droning song, a sad, soulful melody that had some kind of strange, biomagical ring to it, sticking primarily to the backs of the gem's minds.

The song seemed to be putting Jasper on edge.

"I said shut _UP!_ " She growled again, this time punching the wall so hard that cracks formed upon impact. Peridot gulped. The singing continued defiantly, and with an angry whirl of her cape, Jasper shoved Peridot aside and began to walk away, back the way she came. "Finish your research, Technician. We leave in a rotation of the planet."

" _What?!_ " Peridot demanded, "we can't leave yet! I've barely scratched the surface! There's over a dozen _major_ gem ruins in this hemisphere of the planet alone! Not to mention I haven't even started to look into the Cluster!"

"I don't care!" Jasper said, as the singing went up a decibel further. A vein seemed to pulse in the big gem's forehead. "The sooner we dump these rebel disgraces off at court the better."

With that, Jasper was gone, leaving Peridot alone with the singing gem. She sighed, and then her attention was seized by a small blip on her wrist computer. Pulling up the holographic display, she squinted at the readings, and then frowned.

Something organic, bigger than a human, was making it's way towards the ship.

And it was running on water.

* * *

After a couple of test runs, Steven sucked in his breath, and took a running start, closing his eyes at the last moment and leaning on his shoulder as he came barreling out of his cell. His entire body jostled, as if electrocuted, for a few moments, sending odd, tickling pulses of nervous energy up and down his skeleton, but he came out on the other side. After patting himself down and realizing he was in one piece, the young half-gem pumped a fist in the air, doing a little dance to himself before shaking his head and crouching, trying to gain some semblance of stealth and seriousness.

He padded along the walls, although it was more like flapping as, he realized, he was still wearing his flip-flops. After a moment of forethought, the boy stooped and stepped out of the loud, red devices, and picked them up with one hand before trouncing off barefoot, the soles of his feet making only the slightest padding noise as he went. He walked along, swerving his head around to try and catch a glimpse of the interior of every cell he passed. Practically all of them were empty, however as he dashed along his seventh or eighth row, he passed by a cage so fast he almost didn't see the small, red gem pacing back and forth inside of it. After passing by, however, Steven caught himself, and backpedaled to stand in front of the cell.

The gem inside was shorter even than Amethyst, with brick-red skin and a small, poofy afro, tied together with a scrap of red cloth that served as a headband. She was pacing a small circle in her cell; literally. As she walked, Steven took note of the small, singed footsteps that she left on the ground, with smoked for a few seconds even after she stepped away. The gem was muttering angrily, and it took a few seconds for her to register that Steven was there.

"Um… Hello," he said, causing her to stop in place. "I'm looking for my friends… Are you trapped in here too?"

The gem looked to Steven, and then suddenly a look of anguish covered her face. Her hands went up to cover her face, and she growled, pulling them down and stretching out the skin of her face before pushing her hands up and through her hair.

"Grrr, great! Just great! It wasn't supposed to go like this!" She growled, stomping around in her cell, causing more burnt footprints. One even caught into a little blaze, causing a bead of sweat to drip down Steven's forehead.

"Woah, hey, hang on a sec," he said, "what are you talking about?"

Then, there was a distant sound, a heavy thud that echoed though the walls. A fraction of a second later, the singing picked up in urgency, and the little red gem went ballistic, throwing a punch at the yellow energy field, which zapped her hand. She retracted it quickly, shaking it angrily..

"Woah! What's the deal!" Steven said.

"She's trapped in here too!" The little red gem said. "I have to-"

She stopped, as if she was suddenly just taking in Steven for the first time.

"Wait… you're out. How did you get out?" She asked. Steven laughed nervously.

"Oh, I mean… I just kinda…" He put his hand through the beam, ignoring the strange sensation. The yellow energy stopped at his fleshy hand, and there was a small area that was clear of energy, disrupted by his biological form. The new gem looked on with an intelligent gleam in her eye.

"Can you get me out?" She asked.

Steven thought about it. He _did_ seem to be stopping the yellow energy wherever he passed through it. Maybe if he…

Steven stepped into the energy field, and held his arms out as if creating some kind of umbrella for the gem to walk through. His body vibrated strangely, and it sort of felt like his eyes would rattle out of his skull, but the he momentarily created an exit wide enough for the gem to come dashing out at breakneck pace, pausing only long enough to grab Steven by the hand and yank him along behind her.

"Come on!" She said, as the very confused half-gem struggled to keep pace, despite having the longer legs of the pair. The little red gem seemed focused, tilting her head at each intersection of cells to listen out, and the picking a direction to dash. As they went, Steven realized they were following the sound of the singing.

"Where are we going?" Steven asked.

"She's gotta be here somewhere," the gem muttered, mostly to herself, ignoring Steven's question.

As the red gem rounded a bend, she suddenly skidded to a halt and started backing up, shoving Steven back the way they came, a panicked look in her eyes. She dropped to a crouch and glanced once around the corner, before coming back, her back to the wall. Steven looked at her.

"What is it?" He asked, taking his turn to glance around the wall. He saw a squadron of 4 or 5 gems, the same size, shape, and general color scheme of the one he was accompanying. However, whereas the gem she had freed kept her gem on the palm of her hand, these alien's had their gem's in a variety of places. One even had a belly button gem, similarly to Steven.

"Ruby guards…" Steven's newfound companion said with a grimace. Steven looked down at her.

"They look just like you."

Her grimace deepened.

"They're coming this way… Damnit," she said, "She would know what to do."

Steven pursed his lip. He had to think fast. He thought of every movie trope he could think of, and one of them stuck.

"You could pretend to be one of them. Tell them the coast is clear, or something?"

His companion, apparently Ruby, looked up at him and squinted.

"You think that will work?"

Steven shrugged.

"Worth a try, right?"

Ruby didn't like it, but they were running out of options, and as the squadron of Rubies came around the bend, she quickly apologized before shoving Steven into the nearest cell, and then leaning against the wall, trying to seem nonchalant. As they filed in, the gems took in the newest Ruby, and one of them even looked at her suspiciously.

"Um… Hello, fellow Rubies," Ruby said, trying and failing to sound confident. "Everything's all good in this, uh, sector."

The Rubies glanced among each other, and a couple of them murmured, before the apparent leader of the bunch, the one with the bellybutton, spoke up. She sounded surprisingly kind when she spoke.

"Heya, fellow Ruby!" She said, glancing over her shoulder at the dazed Steven. "That human zoo prisoner secure?"

Ruby nodded a little too quickly.

"Uh, yup, totally secure," she said. The navally gemstones alien nodded.

"Good. We were about to go to the command deck and get ready for the lightspeed jump. I was gonna stay and lock up but… If _you_ wanted to do it, I would owe you one. I wanna get in good with captain Jasper."

The alien eyed Ruby slyly, and the little red gem just sputtered and laughed nervously.

"Ahaha, uh, haha, yeah, sure!" She said. "No problem! You just, ahaha, you owe me one!"

"Great! Thanks, _fellow Ruby_ ," The other Ruby said, pressing a small keycard into Ruby's hand and then turning around. "C'mon crew, let's get to the deck!"

With that, the little entourage filed out, leaving a somewhat stunned Steven and Ruby in their wake. When they had fully left, Ruby looked down at the keycard she held, and then slapped her face with her palm in secondhand embarrassment. Steven grinned easily as he forced his way through the energy barrier again.

"Hey! You did great!" He said. "That seemed like it went well."

Ruby turned to him, a little half-smile on her face. Then, the song began anew, restarting from the beginning of the melody in a way that jarred the little red gem out of her momentary victory. She once again grabbed Steven by the hand, and the pair of them dashed away through the maze of cells.

A few turns later, the unlikely pair skidded to a stop in front of a cell, the apparent source of the singing. As they walked forward, Ruby shouted out in joy.

"Sapphy! My Sapphy!" She shouted, charging forward and pressing her hands against the energy barrier for as long as she could, peering in at the small, blue gem before she had to pull away, nursing the painful stings the energy left.

Steven came in quickly behind her. He waved to the small gem inside of the cell.

"Hi," he said, "I'm Steven."

The gem, who had now stopped singing, was standing patiently in front of the energy field. She gave a slight smile beneath her sea of white-blue bangs, and though he saw no eyes, Steven could tell he was looking into his.

"I know," she said.

A little unnerved, but happy to help, Steven proceeded to help Sapphire out of her cell, creating space for her to flee through the energy field. As soon as she was beyond the barrier, the two small gems ran into each other like magnets, falling perfectly into each other's arms, tears and laughter and crying falling out of both of them as they collapsed on the ground. Steven pulled himself out of the beam with a little smile as he watched them, glad to see them reunited. Then, his mouth opened wide as Ruby picked up the other gem by the waist, spinning her around until both gems started to glow, surrounding by an amorphous white light.

Then, with a chiming sound of harmony, the glow subsided, and standing before Steven was an inspiringly, heartwarmingly familiar gem.

Garnet.

The large gem laughed, and jumped with joy as she became whole once more, and she took a good, long moment to hug herself before she turned to take in the bewildered Steven, whose mouth formed a wide 'O'. Garnet laughed, leaning down to pick up Steven and hug him close to her. He returned the hug gladly, suddenly feeling much safer.

"Oh, Steven," Garnet said, "we wanted to tell you. We just… We couldn't find the right time."

"It's OK," Steven said, shaking his head and then burying his face in her shoulder. "I'm just glad you're OK."

They embraced for a few seconds, but the reunion was cut short by a sudden, blaring alarm, and the lights in the room suddenly flashing as if there were an emergency. Garnet set Steven down, and grabbed him sternly by the shoulders, looking him in the eye.

"Go find Amethyst and Pearl, and get off the ship," she said.

"What about you?" Steven asked.

Garnet stood, cracking her knuckles and summoning her sunglasses with a little sparkle of light on her fingertips. Donning the shades, a smug little smile danced on the corners of the alien fusion's lips.

"I've got a rematch to win."

* * *

Peridot arrived on the deck moments before the alarm began to sound, and swore, realizing she was too late. Jasper, who was looking on with frustration at the control panel, spun around at her entrance and curled her lip.

"Technician!" She said. Peridot took her place at the helm. "Get me a visual."

Peridot's mechanical fingers flew across her holographic display, pulling up a number of different camera angles before choosing one that showed the open palm of the ship outside. With a deft flick, she sent the image up onto the main screen, enhanced and blown up so that she, Jasper, and the crew of Rubies could see it. Jasper crossed her arms, trying to make sense of the display.

"What is it?" She asked. Peridot looked too.

It was a large earth beast, quadrupedal and made of lean muscle, with a feline build and a wild mane of pinkish fur. It's man-killing claws were extended, and as it opened it's fanged maw to roar menacingly at the camera, a bolt of pink energy came flying out of it's mouth, destroying the camera and cutting the feed, leaving only the viewport. Peridot looked to Jasper.

"It appears to be a lion, captain."


	11. Stronger Than You

**Author's Note:** _Hey again! Welcome to the final chapter of Steven Universe! It's been a long journey writing the third installment of the Danger Watch universe, and there's more on the way! Stay tuned for the epilogue and post-credit scenes, where you'll catch a sneak peek at the next book in the series! Anyway, that's enough from me. Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 11 - Stronger Than You**

Pearl sat, back slumped against the wall, looking up vacantly at the ceiling. In the cell behind her, she knew, sat Amethyst, in a similar position. They had given up on conversation hours ago. With a sigh, Pearl rubbed her gem gently with her fingers. Unfortunately, the walls of the cell also prevented her from accessing the things stored there; any number of which could have came in handy. The holding cells were designed to do one thing: keep gems in. They did it well.

Though how, she wondered, would it hold up to Steven?

The thought was interrupted quickly by Amethyst speaking up. As per usual, she was the instigator of the conversation.

"I mean, what were we supposed to do? Say ' _Stay in the house, Steven. We'll go stop the_ Giant Alien Warship"?!" She complained. Pearl rolled her eyes. Amethyst was still somewhat hurt by Garnet's disappointment in them earlier. Normally this would have simply irked Pearl to no end, but in this moment of desperation, she somehow found some empathy with Amethyst.

"He would have just came running down anyway," Pearl said, still rubbing her temples. There was the shortest pause of surprise and then Amethyst continued in agreement.

"Exactly!" She said. There was an audible sigh from the other cell, and Pearl shook her head with a bit of a rueful smile.

"We are really in deep, Amethyst," she said.

There was a pause.

"I mean," Amethyst said, "I guess so."

"What part of this is "you guess so"?"

"At least we weren't _shattered_ ," Amethyst said, the word carrying enormous weight to both of them. It was true, Pearl admitted to herself. She had half expected it to come. They were, after all, convicts of the highest degree of treason the Diamond Authority acknowledged. War criminals. It would have been justifiable for the Jasper in charge to have simply destroyed their gems on sight.

But she hadn't.

That thought tantalized Pearl for a moment, and then both she and Amethyst were startled out of their complacency by the sudden alarm sounding. The lights in the hall began to flash, and the wailing sound was clearly one of danger.

"Oh, that's just great!" Pearl said in frustration.

"You gotta be shittin' me," Amethyst agreed.

A troop of Ruby guards came jogging past, and Pearl tried to get their attention.

"Hey! Hey!" She said. One, a Ruby with her gem on her left shoulder, and a square set brow, turned to look at her with a frown. "What is happening?!"

The guard just shook her head, and ran to catch up with the rest of her squad, leaving Pearl and Amethyst standing at the edge of their cells in frustration, panic rising in their chests. Just as their nerves reached their peak, there was an odd _flap-clap-flap-clap_ -ing sound. Pearl gulped as it grew closer and closer, wondering what strange device might be making its way towards them. Then, to her utter bewilderment, Steven rounded a corner, and locked eyes with her.

"Steven!"

"Pearl!"

"You're out!"

"I'm gonna get you out too!" Steven said, rushing forward and braving the energy field once more, making a little arc for Pearl to stoop under and then dipping back out, shaking his head and slapping his cheeks a little. It was starting to become a little draining. However, he still had plenty of energy left to free Amethyst as well.

"Come on!" He said, dashing away. The two aliens followed closely.

"Great job, Steven!" Amethyst said as they ran. "Look atchu! One of the team!"

Steven couldn't help but grin at that, his cheeks flushing with pride, as they dashed for the lift that he knew would take them up and out of the palm of the ship. Garnet had showed it to him with a brief kiss on the forehead. The three, to their amazement, found little in the way of resistance as they dashed towards the lift: as a matter of fact, most movement they did encounter was heading _away_ from the lift. Accepting the gift horse, they took the energy lift up to the open air above, and Steven's heart jumped as he saw the familiar walls of home again.

"Not so fast, crystal _clods!_ " Came a familiar, if tinny, voice, echoing from some kind of loudspeaker. As she spoke, the gems and Steven saw dozens of large, round robots scuttling into view, each armed with various assorted gem weaponry. Peridot's face appeared suddenly on an enormous holo screen in front of them. "You didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

* * *

Garnet snuck her way into a quieter part of the ship, away from the main alarm and the open hanger, where Rubies rushed past escape pods in order to arm the self-defense cannons that armed the palm of the ship, for just this occasion. As she passed, backwards, into a door, she suddenly stood up straight. A tingle went up her spine, and she whirled around, avoiding a lunging stab from her assailant.

Pushing further back into the room, Garnet put some distance between her and her attacker. She realized that the two of them were alone on the deck of the ship, and that her assailant was exactly the gem she was looking for: Jasper.

"Hmph… You fused again?" She said, putting the strange tech weapon up in a defensive position. Garnet mimicked her stance, however, whereas Jasper was glaring, razor-focused and intimidating, Garnet was tapping her toe, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Jasper snarled. "What are you doing?"

_HmmmMMMMmmmmHmmmmm, mhmHmmmmmMMMmmmm_

Jasper's expression grew even more enraged as Garnet hummed the familiar tune.

"Not this again!" She growled. She dashed forward, swinging a heavy haymaker at Garnet, who nimbly dodged backwards, and even laughed a little as she did. This served to further anger opponent. "You miserable, rebel, disgrace! Don't be so cocky. I've already seen what you're made of."

Garnet stepped back, continuing her little toe-tapping dance, and shook her head with a smile.

"You have no idea what I'm made of," she said.

Then, she began to sing.

_This is Garnet, back together_

_And I'm never goin' down at the hands of the likes of you_

_Because I'm so much better_

_And every part of me is sayin' go get her_

A Gem's song was different than a human's. As Garnet sang, her gemstones began to resonate to the melodies that her voice created, and a sort of vibrating, cosmic music began to ring out of them, as her entire form took on the joy of singing. The rhythm of her words served to center her, all the while throwing her opponent off, easily defending as Jasper's attacks with the weapon became more and more wild. Eventually, Garnet saw an opening, and as the big orange gem lunged a little too far, she grabbed her wrist with one hand and the handle of the weapon with the other, wrenching it out of Jasper's grasp. Then, twirling away, she snapped the weapon over her knee, and returned to her defensive stance before she had even finished the second verse.

_The two of us ain't gonna follow your rules_

_Come at me without any of your fancy tools_

_Let's go, just me and you_

_Let's go, just one on two_

* * *

"What's the matter, Greeny?" Amethyst called out, dashing forward and lashing out with her whip to grab a hovering peri-bot out of the air and bring it crashing down into one of the crawling drones. "Can't come face us on your own?"

"Silence!" Peridot said over the loudspeaker. "You clods have cost me precious research time! Grr- Just- _Poof already!_ "

As she shouted, the robots began to shoot another barrage of lasers, and Amethyst's eyes went wide. With a yelp, she came running back towards her cover: Steven, kneeling near the entrance of the lift with his shield summoned. He had the shield widened so that he, Pearl, and Amethyst could shelter behind it. With every summon, he could feel his power growing easier to use, as if flexing a muscle. However, even with his newfound strength, the newest wave of blasts took a toll on Steven, and he winced as cracks began to appear in the shield. Pearl and Amethyst looked nervously at him, and then to the approaching wave. There was still half of the force remaining: nearly a dozen and a half robots.

They were running out of options.

"I'm sorry guys," Steven said, looking down, tears welling in his eyes. "I'm just not… Strong enough…"

The shield began to wane. Pearl gasped. Amethyst glared at her, and then put an arm around Steven. Shaking her head, Pearl did the same.

"It's… It's alright, Steven." she said. "We'll find another way. We'll meet back up with Garnet."

Steven looked up at her, sniffing back his tears, and as he opened his mouth to speak, he was cut off by a loud, roaring sound, multilayered and strange, as if wreathed with space magic. He and the gems turned as the source of the roar bounded into view.

A large, pink lion, with eyes glowing a faint white color, tackled the largest of the peri-bots, sinking its massive claws into the armor of the machine like scissors through paper. Some of the bots turned from their flurry of attacks to train on the new target, but the lion turned towards them as it finished off the bot beneath it. With another roar, a burst of pink energy came out of the beasts mouth, forming a ring that blasted away several of the robots, turning them into crumpled heaps on the ground.

"Woah, a lion!" Steven said, his eyes suddenly aglow with stars. "Why is it pink?"

He suddenly shrunk the shield so that is was attached to his arm, and began to run towards the fight. Pearl's eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

" _Steven!"_ She shouted, quickly standing and chasing after him. "Stay away from it!"

"He looks like he's on our side!" Steven called back, before deflecting a blast from one of the robots and sending it ricocheting into another.

"Haha, alright! Let's gooo!" Amethyst cheered. There was a bright white flash, and then a purple Lion, identical to the first save for the color, came bounding into the fight. The pink lion looked at her in utter confusion for a moment, the white glow subsiding from its eyes as they widened to watch her in action. It was like looking in a weird mirror. Then, the glow returned, and he barked a blast of energy over his shoulder as more of the peri-bots closed in. The battle was short with the assistance of the newcomer, and soon all of them were standing over the destroyed robots, looking up at Peridot's projected face. Steven glanced sidelong at the lion, and tentatively reached over to touch it's mane. It snapped it's jaws at his hand, and he yelped and retracted it, but after staring into the large, docile eyes of the creature for a moment, he giggled.

Peridot was not giggling. She gnashed her teeth as Pearl ripped the end of her spear out of a peri-bot and pointed it up at the projection.

"We're coming for you next, Peridot!"

* * *

_Go ahead and try to hit me if you're able_

_Can't you see that my relationship is stable?_

_I can see you hate the way we intermingle,_

_But I think you're just mad cuz you're single._

Jasper threw two more punches, easily deflected by Garnet, before she snarled and, with that same sound-bending noise, she summoned her helmet and headbutted. Hard. Garnet, to avoid the strike, did a backflip out of reach, and then confidently pointed her finger at her opponent and then, like she had seen in Amethyst's martial arts movies, made a hand sign to signal her to approach.

_And you're not gonna stop what we made together_

_We are gonna stay like this forever_

_If you break us apart we'll just come newer_

_And we'll always be twice the gem that you are-_

With a roar of rage, Jasper jumped forward, rolling on the ground and becoming wrapped up in her hair, which took on a hardened, spikey texture, like Garnet had seen Amethyst do before. Seconds later, Jasper was a spinning ball of death, dashing across the bridge towards Garnet.

_I am made, oh-oh-oh-oh-of_

_Lo-oh-oh-oh-ove, oh-oh-oh-ove_

_Lo-oh-oh-oh-ove, oh-oh-oh-ove, oh-oh-oh-ove_

Garnet summoned her gauntlets, putting them together like a boxer to stop the onslaught of the wheeling Jasper, but she was uttered the last syllable, Jasper suddenly popped out of her ball, grabbing Garnet by the wrist and flipping her over, smashing her into the metal floor of the bridge. Then, Jasper leapt into the air, and came hurtling down, helmet first. She collided with Garnet, and the two of them went crashing through the floor, to the next deck below. Dust and debris went everywhere, and with across the room, Jasper leered over the downed fusion. The music coming out of Garnet's hands continued, but was dampened, as if coming from behind a closed door, as she struggled to a knee, some cracks having formed in her glasses from the crash.

Despite her injuries, she continued to sing.

_This is who we are, this is who I am_

_And if you think you can stop me, than you need to think again_

' _Cuz I am a feeling, and I will never end_

_And I won't let you hurt my planet._

She clutched her fist.

_I won't let you hurt my friends._

With a solid, metal thud, her fist connected with the jaw of the now charging Jasper, stopping her still in her tracks. The music stopped. Jasper turned slowly back to Garnet. Then, the music started back up in earnest, and the two began to dance in a dangerous battle of martial arts.

_Go ahead and try to hit me if you're able_

_Can't you see that my relationship is stable?_

_I know you think I'm not something you're afraid of_

_Cuz you think that you've seen what I'm made of_

_Well I am even more than the two of them_

_Everything they care about is what I am_

_I am their fury, I am their patience_

_I am a conversation._

As she sang the final word, Garnet caught her opponents fist and the two came nearly face to face, Jasper sweating and growling with rage, Garnet smiling and singing harmoniously. The battle was close, but inch by inch, Garnet was turning the tides in her favor.

_I am made, oh-oh-oh-oh-of_

_Lo-oh-oh-oh-ove, oh-oh-oh-ove_

_And it's stronger than you_

"Unhand me! You fools! The ship has a failsafe! I've rigged it to blow if I don't put in the code!" A sudden voice called out, as Garnet's gem music continued to play. Coming out from a hall were Steven, Amethyst, Pearl, and a bound and disgruntled Peridot between them. Jasper snarled as she saw this, but took advantage of Garnet's momentary distraction to try and land a strike.

"Garnet!" Steven called out.

_Lo-oh-oh-oh-ove, Lo-oh-oh-oh-ove_

_Lo-oh-oh-oh-ove_

Thanks to Steven, she was able to turn and deflect the attack, and then in one final movement, she delivered a powerful strike to Jasper's chest, sending her flying and crashing into the mechanics of a nearby wall, dazed.

_And it's stronger than you_

"Nice job, Garnet!" Amethyst cheered. She had returned to her normal form, and came up beside the large gem, who looked down at her and gave her a grim nod.

"This is touching, but the ship is about to blow!" Pearl interjected.

"We need to get out of here!" Garnet said, reaching over to pick up Peridot, who was entangled in Amethyst's whip. Then, she sprinted down the hall, running towards the lift that would take them out of the ship. The ship's alarm had crescendo'd to a dangerous peak, and the floor was beginning to shake as Peridot's failsafe started to take action, hyper-engaging the engine and cranking it up to 11. It would blow at any moment!

The group dashed through the main hangar, where they saw the main crew of Rubies jamming themselves into one of the ship's docked there, a red, teardrop shaped machine, with a triangular yellow viewport. They knew that it was time to leave. They had no chance of stopping the rebel intruders at this point: no matter how loyal they were. The rumbling increased, and clearing the hangar, they finally arrived at the hallway the lift inhabited. They were almost free! Then-

_ka-CRASH!_

The hallway suddenly collapsed on itself, sealing them inside of the now self-destructing ship. Pearl's hands suddenly clasped over her mouth, and Steven looked nervously between his friends. Would they die here? Was this it?

" _Clods!"_ Peridot said from over Garnet's shoulder. "Now you'll be recovered by the next ship that passes by this measly planet! If the wreckage doesn't shatter you!"

"If we get shattered, you probably will be too," Amethyst said, locking eyes with the technician coldly. That shut her up.

"What do we do, Garnet?" Pearl asked. The big gem was silent.

_Rrrooarr!_

There was a sound like pulsing energy, and all of a sudden, the pink lion reappeared. It walked forward on its massive paws, a strange bulwark of calm in the surrounding chaos. It was walking directly towards Steven, its dark eyes focused solely on him. Pearl nervously considered stepping in between the two, but Garnet put a steadying hand on her shoulder. _Wait,_ her body language said. The lion came forward, and stood inches away from Steven. If it had wanted, it could have snatched up the top half of the boy in its jaws. However, instead, it pressed its heavy, soft, pink head against Steven's stomach.

At first, the boy was startled, but then, laughing nervously, he put his arms gently around the lion's head, scratching behind it's ears. It was surprisingly soft and gentle.

"Uh," he said, "heh, hey."

"Careful, Steven," Pearl said. The half-gem looked down at the big, thoughtful dark eyes of the lion, and then back to Pearl, and shook his head, curling his finger's into the beast's mane.

"No, I… I think he wants to help us. I don't know how, but… I just know."

There was silence, which would have lasted if not for the Hand Ship crumbling down around them. Amethyst hurried them along.

"Well, whatever you got, we'll take it," she said, directing her words to the lion. It turned, looked at her blankly, and then yawned. She turned purple at the cheeks.

Then, with painstakingly slow movement, it padded away, swishing its tail once before, with another roar, it shot another burst of pink energy. This time, however, it didn't cause destruction. Instead, the rippling effect created by the ring of pink lingered, and began to form a shimmering portal in the air before them. Before long, the portal fully manifested, and a circle of white-pink light, wide enough for all of them, appeared. Amethyst's jaw dropped, and Steven raised his fists up in the success.

"Woo-hoo!" He shouted. "Great job, lion!"

The lion turned back to him once, and then walked forward through the portal. A little bead of sweat dripped down Steven's forehead.

"Uh, I think that's our cue!" He said.

The others nodded, and dashed forward through the portal, just as the ceiling of the hangar came crashing down on where they had just been.


	12. Epilogue and Post-Credits Scenes

**Author's Note:** _Hey! Thank you SO MUCH for reading until the end! I posted the last few parts in a flurry because I was THAT excited! The amount of support for the series has been absolutely amazing, and I am so happy to deliver this story to you guys! As always, stick around after the epilogue for a post-credits scene, which will give you some hints at upcoming titles in the series!_

* * *

**Epilogue**

Steven sat, his feet dangling off of the edge of the hand of the temple guardian, the enormous gem that was carved into the face of the cliff. There, plugged into just about a trillion feet of extension chord, were a washer and drier, and inside the latter was a batch of red shirts with yellow stars on them. They were technically his father's leftover merchandise from his hey day, but Steven wore them proudly. Usually, a beautiful midsummer day like this would have made Steven so happy he would whip out his ukulele and sing. However, today, the teen had pressing thoughts on his mind.

It had been about a month since the Hand Ship exploded. In that time, he had accidentally adopted a lion, the Rubies had escaped, the gems had scoured the bottom of the ocean for any signs of Jasper, and they had destroyed what was left of the galaxy warp so that it could not be used again. Along with near constant training with the Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl , and even some strange one-on-one time with the captive Peridot, he was beginning to really feel like a Crystal Gem.

However, glancing down at the flip phone and scrap of paper in his lap, a lump began to form in Steven's stomach.

This was the one thing that he could have never trained for.

The familiar sound of the warp pad chimed, and Amethyst stepped out. She raised her eyebrows gently at Steven, and then shrugged, walking over and sitting down with a little grunt, gently nudging him with her shoulder.

"'Sup," she said, looking out onto the sparkling teal surface of the ocean. Steven kept staring at his lap, and eventually, the purple gem noticed. She gave him a sly grin. "Oh, hey! Finally gonna call that Connie girl?"

Steven groaned, falling backwards and throwing his arms up to shield his eyes from the sun. Amethyst whistled.

"Oh, it's like that, huh?" She nodded sagely. "I _getchu_ little guy… But, uh, you really don't wanna know about that. Talk to me, how are you feeling?"

Steven sighed.

"It's just… The last time we hung out, I almost got her killed. Then, I never called her because I was trapped in an alien spaceship? It's like… What do I tell her? Hey, I'd love to be friends, but I can't promise that a U.F.O won't show up and snatch me up while we're out for donuts?" The words tumbled out of his mouth, and Amethyst listened like a therapist. "I really like her, and I _really_ want to be friends but… I don't know if I want her to be in danger."

The warm, salty sea breeze blew through the guardian's finger's, causing ripples in Amethyst's hair. There was a silence between them: Steven's anguished and Amethyst's pensive, before finally the purple alien broke it with her wisdom.

"Listen, Steven. For the most part, we gems have had a pretty no-to-low contact rule with humans. You know that. Rose… made exceptions. So have I, but for the most part, we have tried to stay out of the public eye. Like you said, we put people in danger. The more attention we draw to ourselves, the more trouble we cause." She winced. "That deal with the Guardian monastery was a nightmare."

"Monastery?" Steven asked. Amethyst waved it away, realizing she had gone off track.

"Never mind," she said, "my point is: you're like, technically a human. You don't have the same rules as we do. If you ask me, you should be spending _way_ more time with human's than you are now. A friend will be good for you. And, besides: you'll always have us around to protect you. If you think Garnet would let anything happen to you two, you didn't see the way she was looking at Connie when she talked about you."

"What does _that_ mean?" Steven asked, sitting up suddenly. Amethyst made a face, trying to hide her guilty smile as she covered her face with a hand.

"I've said too much! I gotta go, my pop-tarts are done burning!" She said, standing up and walking backwards to the warp pad. She gave Steven a chest bump and a peace sign. "Call her dude!"

Steven laughed, returning the peace sign as the warp pad sent his friend back down. Then, he looked back to his phone, standing up confidently as he punched in the phone number written on the scrap of paper. He could do this. He would call her, ask her to hang out, and then warp downstairs and continue to grill Amethyst about her cryptic comment.

Oh, he thought, as the phone began to ring, that's another thing he had learned how to do.

He could use the warp pad now.

**End of Book 3**

**Steven Universe...**

**And the Crystal Gems...**

**Will Return...**

**In Steven Universe 2**

* * *

**Post Credits Scene 1**

The icy, bitter cold caused the hulking orange gem to flinch under her cloak. She had been trudging through knee deep snow for days, now, and it was starting to take its toll on her. Even with all of her strength and endurance, Jasper would need rest soon. Luckily, she spotted a looming shape in the distance: a structure, dark against the barren white of the frozen, snowy landscape. Bracing herself against a particularly jarring blast of cold wind and snow, she hunkered forward, and in minutes, found herself pushing open the doors of the structure.

It was a temple, she knew, judging by the shape of the building, with its square design and diamond shaped spires.

It was also, she knew, the temple of her very own Diamond.

Stomping off snow on the torn pink entry rug, she heaved the large, metal doors closed behind her, trapping in what little warmth she could. Looking around, she found no fire, no blankets, and no equipment of any kind. The rebels, she knew, would have cleared this place of anything valuable a long time ago. Grumbling to herself, the orange gem discover that, to her luck, there was still a small bundle of firewood and kindling.

Damning the consequences of a dead god-queen, she tore some of the highly flammable trim of one of the tapestries down, and set to work creating a small fire for herself. It was deathly small at first, but eventually, Jasper had worked herself a sizable flame, and curled around it pitifully. If her gemstone froze, it could crack and shatter, and that would spell her doom. As Jasper lay on the cold stone floor that night, she shed tears of light. She was cold, yes, but more than that.

She was alone.

* * *

**Post Credits Scene 2**

The red teardrop slowly floated it's way through the orbit of Earth, a slow but steady pace that eventually brought it to hover above the pale surface of the moon. The ship coasted along the rim of the space rock, until eventually, it seemed to find what it was looking for, and descended. Moments later, with a hiss of exertion from the landing gear, the red spaceship touched down on moon sand, and moments after that, a quintet of stout, red aliens climbed out. They had arrived right on target.

The supposed leader of the group, who wore a yellow visor, discarded from the crew's previous supervisor, and who had a ruby gemstone inlaid in her chest, led the way, walking over a few acres of craters before they dipped down into a particularly large divot, and arrived at their destination.

The gem moon base was a looming, dark grey tower, a single-spired fortress that had intimidating replicas of three (once four) figures at its corners. Here, the Rubies had reckoned, they would seek refuge. However, as they approached, one of the Rubies spoke up, having spotted something strange.

"Uh, Ruby?" the Ruby, who had a gem where her eye ought to be, said. The leader turned to look at her questioningly. "Whose ship is that?"

The whole crew turned to look to where the gruff gem was pointing, and they all gazed upon a sleek, dark, spaceship. It was a deadly black color, shaped like a stingray, with shining, bladed edges. It was parked at the entrance of the moon base, and the door to the base was cracked ajar. The leader looked back to the crew.

"Alright, Rubies," she said, "combat formation. We're going in.""

With that, they each summoned a weapon from their gems, and began to quickly dash towards the door in a tactical formation, A bulkier Ruby with her gem on her arm delivered a flying kick to the door as they entered, and they all tucked into combat rolls, brandishing their weapons and delivering battle shout as…

Nothing happened. They glanced around. They saw nothing but a layer of fog seeping across the ground. The Rubies squinted, checking in with each other before continuing further into the base. As they did, their formation grew tighter.

"I got a bad feeling about this," one of them said.

Then, with a heavy _slam!_ The doors closed behind them. The Rubies whirled around to find a pair of large, orange-red robotic drones slamming the doors. They turned to face them, but even more of the industrial looking automata arrived on their every flank, and soon, they were surrounded, with the drones showing off deadly weaponry that was aimed at them. One Ruby gulped. Then, the ranks of drones parted, and a strange machine was wheeled into view.

It was something like a large, cylindrical tank, full of bubbling goo. Inside of the goo, there was what appeared to be the upper half of some kind of huge alien. The torso alone was easily 6 feet in length, and while only one arm was present, it was large, muscular, and green. The body ended in what was left of a strange, tentacled head, which was covered by a large, black, metal breathing mask, which bubbles were constantly streaming out of. Its eyes were closed, but somehow, the Rubies were glad for that.

When it spoke, the words seemed to thunder in the ears of the gems, though there was no sound.

**GOOD. YOU WILL DO NICELY. I AM IN NEED OF… MINIONS.**

**Next Time: Phase 1, Book 4**

**Ben 10: Origins**


End file.
